August 24
It seems such a short time ago that we finished the picking for 2021 and here we are at the beginning of spring, pruning almost complete and watching the vines coming back to life. The great thing about managing a vineyard is the way that it reconnects you to the natural cycles that are all too easy to forget. The Granite Belt has four very distinct and beautiful seasons courtesy of our altitude (900 plus metres) and exposure to the great inland of Australia.
There are many hurdles to overcome before we pick the grapes that will hopefully grow on this little chardonnay bud that will become a cane that bears the bunches and I will try to keep a little record here so that you can follow the progress. We have high hopes for this vintage as we are not battling drought and the vines have had a year of fantastic rain to help them regain their strength.
August 28
Winter came back with a vengeance! A couple of sub zero mornings and ripper frosts. Fortunately bud burst is not so far advanced that irreparable damage has been done. Even if we do loose a bud or two the clever vines have a backup plan and will reshoot – just likely to be slightly less fruitful. Some of the Fiano have also started bud burst, these vines are super vigorous so once they really start we will see a beautiful green vineyard in no time. The vineyard won’t smell so pleasant soon – we have 20 tonnes of pellatised chook poo to spread and partially bury – this will bring a bit of organic life back into the soil, some of which will have been leached away through the recent excellent rains.
September 9
Look at this! And away goes the Chardonnay!
Bud burst 2021
September 20, 2021
We are expecting some low temperatures and potentially a frost in the next few days so we will be carefully watching these little Chardonnay bunches.
Chardonnay – September 20, 2021