Yes it’s been a while but worth waiting for. Vineman has taken a month off and traveled to the southern region of Puglia in Italy, the heel of the boot. This region is renowned for its hot climate, rugged landscape, robust red wines and Trulli (cone shaped stone dwellings).

The area I have settled in for […]

Following the Viognier harvest, everyone braced themselves for a bigger day with the Merlot.  Given that we were a few pickers short the previous day, I was right on to stressing with the picking contractor that more bodies were needed to ensure that the fruit is off before the peak heat of the day.  Things did drag on into […]

Well, following on from my last post, the nets won the race but not after incurring a small amount of collateral damage.
Organising a netting contractor proved more difficult than usual.  Not because they were all busy applying nets but because they had’nt realised that things were going to get frantic, the birds would suddenly move in […]

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 […]

I am sorry it has been a while since I last posted.  While the usual excuse could be that things have been rather hectic, I must say that I have been trying to get my head around the current season, what it has been dishing up and what it means for the 2008 vintage.
In a […]