The past weeks have seen weather conditions range from a run of extremely hot days and nights, rain and currently mild to warm days with cool nights.

Ten days ago when we received 25mm of rain over two days I must say I was looking for the worry beads as I had only just commenced sampling and at that stage harvest looked like being more than 3 weeks away.  Luckily both the Merlot and Viognier have come through that well with only a slight slowing of ripening for about a week.

Initially things were looking very similar to 2007 with harvest possibly mid March.  Since then it appears as though we have slipped into a normal harvest time, if there is such a thing.

Bird pressure appears to have abated as sporadic flowering of the red gum has commenced.  The only issue are the ground feeding magpies finding their way under the nets.  They seem to be kind on the fruit and leave it alone.

Yesterday’s sampling showed the Viognier to be colouring well and exhibiting some of that characteristic shrivel.  Flavours will build in the next week or so.

For this important variety things are looking good and we should be on track for 13.5 - 14.0 Beaume at harvest.

The Merlot is a little behind and ripening steadily.  The crop load is moderate following an extensive fruit drop post veraison.  The remaining fruit has coloured well.

For the Merlot we are looking for around 13.5 Beaume - still 2 weeks away!

Will keep you all posted how the next week or so transpires.

Vineman

Technorati Tags: Merlot, Viognier, Beaume, veraison, red gum

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 18th, 2008 at 2:12 pm and is filed under Vineman, Gherardi Vineyard, Season Predictions. 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.