Well as fate would have it we are seeing a very challenging year unfold in the vineyard. Early bud-break, spring frost, spring rains, and then the heat and drought! We are scampering around putting out our irrigation system as some of the vines are starting to show the first signs ofwater stress. So we will take no chances and put the irrigation out….Our hopes are that Mother nature will take care of this challenge with a little rain, but “just in case”.
The lack of water does do good things in the vineyard; the disease pressure is very low, the vines stop growing canopy and start ripening fruit sooner, and we don’t have to mow the grass as much!
The kids are not excited about the canopy work in the blazing heat, but we are already getting excited about the prospects of a year like 2007 where warm weather and a lack of rain produced some the ripest fruit we have ever seen….Oh we can only hope!
