The fact that it’s Australia Day (26th January) soon is my reminder that veraison is close, vines need to be prepared and bird nets have to be applied.

Closer inspection of the vineyard yesterday showed that since the weekend berry softening and colouring (veraison) has commenced.  What this means is that the early scouting birds are able to tell all their relatives and mates that sweet things await them very soon.  It then becomes a race between me with my nets and the birds as to who wins the battle.  I trust I will!

Nets are booked to be applied next Wednesday and so before then there is a deal of work to prepare the vines.  Over the past two evenings the final spray has been applied - this consisted of  wettable Sulphur, Neem oil (for rust mites) as well some final nutrition comprising liquid Kelp and Epsom Salts.  Touch wood to date there has been no evidence of disease throughout the vineyard.

As well, the Viognier grafts have required a final shoot trim which was done manually. No need to go to the gym when your doing this. 

The vines prior to trimming do appear a little scrappy and require shoots and leaves to be removed especially on the north side i.e. right side of row above.

The result is as shown, which I must say does look really neat when completed.

With attention to detail the fruit is partially exposed so that during the ripening period the berries receive maximum sunlight, develop a golden colour and some shrivelling.  These are the perfect conditions in order to produce the perfect Viognier fruit.

So far the weather conditions have been perfect, heaps of sunlight, some warm days and no rain.  More of the same through to harvest PLEASE!

Vineman

Technorati Tags: Australia Day, veraison, Sulphur, rust mite, Epsom Salts, Kelp,  Viognier

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008 at 3:04 pm and is filed under Vineman, Gherardi Vineyard, viticulture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.