Saturday, September 30, 2006

Better than expected!

Took a sample of 200 Merlot grapes to the winery, and the results were good, but we'll need a visit from Carine to see if they can be picked. She suggested just throwing them in with the Cabernet, as there were very few to pick anyway. So on 25th September I took a sample of Cabernet and it was OK, so I then arranged with Mr Daney to pick them by machine on Friday 29th. The big machine arrived and proceeded to pick what it could, but there was no Merlot left for us to add to it - the birds had eaten it all! Mr Daney said he had a friend whose vineyard was even worse, which made me feel a little betterWe did pick any left-over Cabernet so added a few bucket-fulls to the total, then left Mr Daney to take them to the weigh-in, fearing the worst as we could only fill one trailer this year compared with two last year.

So, surprisingly, the result was not bad. A total of 4,270 kilos of cabernet at 11.7 degrees potential alcohol. This compares with 7,050 kilos at average 13.2 degrees last year. And Zero Merlot this year compared with 640 kilos last year.

We're hoping this will just about cover our costs for the vineyard this year, although of course we won't actually see any of this money until September 2008......

Saturday, September 02, 2006

better luck next year?

Well, Carinne, the lady from the winery, came to visit and gave the verdict that the Merlot (8 rows) was a complete write-off, but maybe the Cabernet (140 rows) could be saved. I explained that it would cost me 500 euros to get the Cabernet picked, so the grapes would have to be worth at least that! She reckons we've lost at least 60% of the Cabernet, but what we have left could be worth about 1500 to 1800 euros, so at the moment we're still planning to pick.

The first picture shows one of the vines bady affected.

According to the diary I've kept, the protection against greenfly ran out the day before the hailstorm, so the vines were subsceptible to that and to mildew.

The second picture was taken on July 17, and shows how the bunches each have some grapes affected by mildew. The risk is that the mildew can spread to the rest of the grapes.

Of course, what I didn't realise was that the mildew wasn't the big killer - it's the greenfly!


The third picture shows the same bunches on August 31 - the good grapes have turned purple and the mildew-ed grapes have just dried up, so there's still some hope...

The biggest problem now is that the greenfly has really taken hold so I'll have to spray at least twice to keep it in check (otherwise there'll be no leaves as well as no grapes, and that will affect next years crop).

Curiously, the pink stuff I'm spraying on now also protects against the "flavescence doree", subject of the earlier obligatory spraying, and is about a quarter the price. I still can't understand why we weren't told to use that one, and kill two bugs with one stone....