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 […]

Back in late August I posted explaining why it was important to wrap the canes in the Viognier block in an arched cinfiguration, that is not flat along the fruiting wire.  I will explain and show you the results - please read on.
Firstly bud burst occurred in early September and was accompanied by some very wet weather.  The […]

While pruning has been a little drawn out this year, I have achieved delaying it until August and as I have stated before, it is preferable to prune later rather than earlier.
Now, you just can’t keep the Minister for communication (yes the same one as mentioned on the Gherardi 2005 Viognier label) away from a […]

Yes, as promised, the secateurs were sharpened and from the stiff and swollen right hand I have at the moment,  I can vouch that I have done a few days pruning.
Started with some cane pruning of the Viognier (Montpellier clone) where I use hand secateurs as I like to pull the canes out of the wires […]

No I have not been away on holidays - time just got away from me. I am back at it and I promise the blogs will appear more regularly.
Since my last post I have looked closely at the fertiliser results and have put together what I consider a comprehensive fertiliser blend based on the soil and petiole […]