The old proverb says that the best fertilizer is the owners shadow. Early mornings in the vineyard mean that shadow is longest and the vineyard fresh and revealing its secrets to the astute eye. The berries are swelling, starting to fill out; soon they will be touching each other. The canes are starting to lignify; the soft, green sappy canes turn hard, brown and woody. As I walk the rows lifting the last of the high training wires I see and respond to the minutia of the vineyard; a vine that
needs attention; drop some fruit, tie up a cane, cut a wayward cane, cut a weed that is competing with a vine, trim a side-shoot that was missed, add some body nitrogen to a struggling vine. These and a hundred other little improvements: the one-percenters of continuous improvement (and modern football).
If you believe that good wine starts in the vineyard (as I do) then I'm making wine as much as I am fussing about the vines. Someone once said to me that you can spend all day doing such things in a vineyard and the next day you'd come back and find more to do. It's true, but it is the seemingly insignificant one-percenters that make a difference in the long run.
Some decent warm weather is with us at last and heating up further in through the new year. 40 degrees forecast for 3rd Jan. We dodged the last three rain events, just 6mm, 4mm and nothing this last weekend.
Th
e vineyard is now in its 10th year. The trunks of the vines look strong and think. The vineyard floor is now stable, a good layer of straw put down two years ago is controlling the weeds naturally and conserving water. Any branch that cannot easily be trained up to the wires is likely to find itself cut off. All in the name of better quality.
It is probably another month before the grapes begin to turn red, but the next two months will go fast.