Nov
14
Wire lifting - thank god for iPods…
Filed Under Uncategorized, Vineyard
The recent rain and warm weather have caused the vines to grow like weeds, with the Shiraz, Sangiovese, and Marsanne particularly verdant. The shoots on these vines have grown very long, very quickly, and some of the vines in the younger block don’t have the strength to hold them up; in the wind, the vines start rolling to either side of the wire. To prevent this, and to allow the sun to penetrate into the vine canopy, we lift each side of the vine canopy with foliage wires. The wires stay on the posts from year to year; we drop them when we prune the vines, then lift them when the time comes during the growing season. And that time is now. It is a tedious job, walking up and down the vine rows, lifting wires, and knocking off any shoots that have grown out of the vine trunk. To make it less tedious, I recently acquired an iPod, of which I understand NONE of the technology; all I know is that my eldest daughter, Miranda, put a heap of audio books on it for me, so that I can blissfully listen to them all the while. For the first time ever, wire lifting is fun. And I have the added joy of knowing that I can have lots of cheese and wine at the end of the day, having walked off so many calories in the vineyard! (Although to be quite honest, at the end of the day, I am quite exhausted, and my feet hurt. My horse likes this, though. Sometimes I am too tired to work her!)
One thing, though, it does give you a very good opportunity to look at the vines, and see how they are travelling. You can see if any disease is rearing its ugly head, for example. We don’t spray very often, and use the preventative spray, sulfur, rather than some of the other nasty chemicals. My only spray so far (apart from a sulfur at bud burst to control mites) was a sulfur spray a few weeks ago, as well as a bacterial spray to get rid of the Light Brown Apple moth that can cause havoc with bunches. It has rained since then, so the vines are currently unprotected. However, with the wind and the sun that we get here, mildews are unlikely to be much of an issue. But I do enjoy the chance to see how flowering is going; how big the bunches are going to be; and how many of them. In the next few weeks, I’ll get out and do some bunch counts. But first, many, many more wires to lift! I shall be extremely fit; look out for the toned vigneronne, striding vigourously up and down the rows, with my puppies Flora and Pippy panting along behind me. But don’t call out; I won’t hear you, thanks to my trusty iPod!
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