August 2004
Author: Iain
In the Vineyard
August is supposed to be a month of general relaxation for vignerons. We must be doing something terribly wrong. If anything the work has accelerated even further this month, partly due to the incredibly bad weather (a total of 112mm of rain in the month with 36mm of it in one night) and partly because we want to go that step further in terms of optimising the quality of our crop.
We won’t forget August in a hurry. By the middle of the month, we face multiple dilemmas. The first major problem is, yet again, with our sauvignon blanc (it is truly scary how much effort has been spent tending these vines). On one of our regular inspections we discover several bunches of grapes with signs of rot. We initially put this down to the residual damage from last month’s hail but later we decide that it’s due to the tightness of the bunches causing berries to burst and then become attacked by botrytis. Even though we have sprayed against Botrytis (twice!), the exceptionally wet and warm weather has created a fantastic environment for the fungus. It is hugely depressing to view large bunches of previously healthy grapes start to turn brown with rot. We need to remove all damaged bunches and thin-out the remaining ones, ensuring none of them are touching each other to reduce the risk of spreading the disease. It’s a slow and disheartening job and we estimate it will take us 55 man hours to do just one hectare (one third of our sauvignon blanc). Whilst working we spot some other problems. ESCA, a fungal disease, seems to be attacking a worryingly large number of vines, as is another disease Eutypiose. After the heat wave of last year the vines have over-produced this year, stressing themselves so much that many are now falling prey to diseases. Alongside all this, the humid weather means that weeds are suddenly rampant underneath the vines. We are certainly learning the hard way! Fortunately though, all the red grapes are looking really healthy (hope this isn’t tempting fate) ….so… having taken stock of the state of the vineyard we are now faced with the following situation –
-
There has been so much rain that the vines are no longer protected
against mildew so another spray is required.
If we don’t spray the weeds again we won’t be able to see the grapes to harvest them
All of the Sauvignon Blanc needs to be checked and thinned.
In order to weed spray all the young vines need to have the little plastic sacks put on them to protect them and we need to remove all the little shoots (epamprage) from the bottom of the vines.
Everywhere needs to be mowed
All the red vines need to checked to ensure there isn’t any rot and be thinned where necessary.
We need to mark all vines with ESCA or Eutypiose (so we can identify them for special treatment when it is time to prune them)
We must keep an eye on all the grapes regularly to avoid the spread of rot
We are absolutely desperate for sunshine in September
The various ‘problems’ aren’t the only things to occupy us this month. In order to increase the quality of our red wines (and the improve the ripening of all of our grapes) we want to undertake a ‘green harvest’ – basically this means trimming off whole bunches of grapes so that each vine is left with a small number of bunches. This is remarkably challenging - seeing the ground littered with grapes that have already begun to ripen is pretty distressing. In fact, at the beginning, it is so challenging for Jack that I have to follow behind her to cut off extra bunches that she can’t bring herself to remove! Not only that but she seems to find it easier to cut her fingers than the grapes. Lots of blood, yuk. We attack our oldest vines first and take the most radical action with them – we want to make our top of the range wine from these vines – so we aim for a low yield of great quality. Eventually we face up to the fact that we can’t possibly finish the whole vineyard on our own. So we draft in José’s team who descend en-masse and attack the rest of the merlot.
With all of this going on we’re pretty occupied and more than a little stressed. Worse was to come. Over the weekend of the 21st and 22nd I spend 21 hours in the tractor trimming the vines and then spraying against mildew while the rain held off. Then on Monday, several more hours spraying against the weeds under the vines. As I am about to finish one half of the vineyard, it starts to rain, meaning I’ll have to re-spray. Great. I return to the house in a pretty dark mood and with tractor-driver’s neck (from peering fixedly at where I’m spraying for weeds). Beck’s take pity on me and gives me a hug at exactly the moment that the rain turns to hail. Our third attack of the year. I’m not sure I can even describe how this felt but I can remember sitting at the bottom of the stairs with my head in my hands. Jack optimistically points out that it’s falling straight down so we might be ok. I just sit there. It is pretty much of an understatement to say that we feel pretty low at this point, absolutely exhausted and wondering if all of our work so far will have been for nothing. Nevertheless, when the storm finishes we force ourselves to venture out to take a look at the damage. Miraculously Jack is right, some berries have been split but remarkably few.
At the end of the month the weather changes for the better, thank goodness.
August finishes with a flourish with the sugar in our grapes at a potential
alcohol level of 9%.
The Winery
More
than once this month I have been awake really early, unable to go back
to sleep. The problems with the winery are on my mind and are beginning
to take their toll. At the moment there is no electricity and no water
supply. We have a building with shiny new cuves happily waiting for
their first vintage but at this rate they’ll remain empty until
next year.
We are now completely at war with our neighbours who don’t like the idea of the winery and are even less impressed that lorries are using their driveway to get to it (in spite of originally agreeing that they could – and so we resurfaced it at our expense!). On one particularly memorable day our neighbour turned up with a piece of paper that he wanted me to sign stating that I formally agreed not to use his drive. I remained pretty cool and said that I would sign only if he signed an equivalent paper saying that neither he nor any of his visitors would ever even walk on our land (pretty difficult for him as our land completely surrounds his place). Anyway, a few histrionics later, he leaves and no papers are signed. Jack and I decide that there’s no alternative, in order to avoid being held hostage, we’ll have to get a new drive built. Yet another problem to sort out!
So, not only is the vineyard giving cause for concern this month, with around 20 days to go to the likely harvest date of our first grapes things in the winery are pretty tense too.
Jack makes repeated daily calls to our project manager, electricians, EDF (French electric board), the plumber, the people responsible for ground-works and water treatment people in a determined attempt to keep things moving.
On the positive side, all of the equipment (except one pump) has been delivered and the walk-ways above the cuves have all been installed. It all looks splendid - just need to be able to use it!
The latest pictures are in our winery section.
Daily Life
Yet another month with not a huge amount of time for anything other than the vineyard jobs. Goodness knows how Jack manages to get washing and ironing done! I did manage to sneak a day out with José though – we visited the Medoc to take a look at how the vineyards over there were doing and made a tour of Mouton Rothschild – very impressive but, for us, everything was just a bit too neat/tidy/staged. Probably just too much of a contrast to our own little project.
Rebecca spent a couple of fantastic weeks in England visiting friends
and then my brother, Chris, and his family came for a few days after
taking Rebecca to Disneyland Paris (which she also enjoyed hugely).
Chris and Kuldip leave, having spent their holiday working in the vineyard,
cleaning the pool, mowing the grass, cooking, and looking after Rebecca!
Not sure they’ll be back in a hurry.
