When we are out pruning the vines in the winter, you can’t help holding an image in your mind of the countless ripening bunches under a benevolent sun that each cut will guide us towards. So it is the oddest feeling, in early July, to walk through the same rows systematically removing the very healthy-looking bunches that our pruning indeed produced! There is, however, a method to this seeming madness
… the glorious heat of June propelled the vines to a great flowering period and subsequent fruit-set, so much so that we are in the enviable position of being able to take away a proportion of fruit to ensure the rest of the crop ripens to its fullest potential (especially as the summer here seems to have lost its way somewhat!).
We have been fortunate too in not having suffered any onslaught of cold damage to buds this year (our new frost protection system having seen off what low-level frost we did have) and it has been fascinating to see how effectively the drip fertigation has worked in delivering the necessary nutrients direct to the vines’ roots – a far more effective way than conventional foliar application. Couple this with the fine flowering season in 2022 when this year’s nascent flower buds were also created, we are now looking forward to a potentially significant crop as we approach the period of veraison in mid-August when the grapes start to turn colour and settle in to ripen.
Hoping of course that our current summer finds its way back to us again!
In the mean time, we hope you are enjoying last year's vintage of our still Rose.
Please visit our shop for any orders.
Please visit our shop for any orders.
