How quickly we move from the grey short cold days of winter dormancy (for vine, not custodian) to the green lengthening warm days of spring.  From the bud burst of mid September to the elongating shoots of October it is our most frantic time in the vineyard.  Mowing, cultivating under vine, applying sulphur, fish and seaweed emulsions as well as shoot thinning takes up a lot of time and demands a seven day a week commitment.

Add in establishing a new ultra close planted vineyard (finishing planting today) and it seems there's barely a spare moment to enjoy the splendour of the carpets of greens.  But take a moment we do and things are really looking beautiful.  The mature plantings are growing very well and we approach the rest of the growing season with much hope, and a little trepidation after several small harvests.  

Our new planting of Pinot Noir involves four clones (two new to us) and is mostly at a density of 11,300 vines per hectare.  A small section is planted to 22,600 vines per hectare.  This is very intensive (vines, materials and labour as well as some new equipment required) however we have high hopes for the specific site itself as well as the planning and work going into it.  Time, a long time, will tell!

The season starts off after a very dry winter which did not see any water run off in to the dams.  Which is obviously a concern however well timed rain during the season will be a welcome mitigation to this problem.  Pleasingly, the soil moistures are holding up very well and the composting work done in winter as well as the undervine cultivation sees the soil looking very healthy.

The task of winter pruning is upon us and forecasts of hail and snow are giving cause for digging deep into the winter clothing.  Thermals are a must.  The last of the 2013s are bottled and we will have news of these wines late in July.  Suffice to say that despite the crop being 30% down on ideal yields the quality is exceptionally fine and as the wines settle post bottling they are beginning to sing their sweet tunes once more.  The upsetting shortfall in 2013 is given context by the horrendous flowering experienced for the 2014 crop which has seen a reduction in yield in the order of 65%.  As Bindi's dad would say, Crikey!

Things move on, regardless.  The peas and oats established in the new vineyard sites we are preparing are growing well and will form an enriching 'green manure' in the Springtime before we begin our planting.  An interesting observation; we planted in 1988 and more in 2001 and will again in 2014.  Thirteen year gaps.  Nothing unlucky there (maybe the tiny addition in 1992 with Block 5 broke that hoodoo?).  The new sites being prepared are all on the same contour as Block 5 and will have a diverse mix of high quality clones planted at very high density (11,500 vines per hectare).  Exciting.

Until release time in late July.............

Frost.  Hail.  Cold.  Dry. Hot.  Fire.

Dear me.  The romanticism of grape growing and wine making is being tested continually at every stage of this gruelling season.  Yes, of course, we are well versed in the various ways the weather can affect the crop quality and quantity and we are always prepared for some of these challenges to occur during any season.  However this season has been quite breathtaking in its audacity to throw down challenges, to both vine and grower, month on month.  We press on!

We began in September with some unseasonal warm weather which pushed the buds out earlier than usual.  Our usual diligent attention to our frost protecting fan saw it serviced by the installer just prior to the first frost of the season.  Unfortunately, the fan was rendered useless by a basic servicing error and it failed to run during a -2.7 degree frost event.  We are still assessing the extent of the fruit loss, but it was certainly significant.  Perhaps even more troubling was the weather in December when the vines began to flower and set their crop.  The ideal is calm, warm, even weather.  We had windy, cold, erratic weather highlighted, in the most perverse way, by hail.  The result has been a poor fruit set.  On the positive side, the good rains through October and November have seen the canopy grow very well and regardless of what occurs crop wise this season, the vines will be set up for winter pruning and a likely strong start to the 2015 season.  Yes, we do think in long timeframes with these vines!

The start of December saw the rain clouds turned off and it has been unremittingly dry for two months now.  We have had 25mm and a startlingly long run of hot weather, peaking with five days of 40 degrees or above in January.  And on it goes.  The day after the five year anniversary of the catastrophic Black Saturday bushfires we experienced a high wind, 41 degree day and a fire exploded into life just over the hill from us, thankfully to the east.  This fire, three days later, is no longer threatening towns but continues to cause anxiety and the risk of burning stumps and trees reigniting another front remains.  So, we do have some smoke haze around us however the grapes are yet to begin ripening and the expectation, like in 2007 and 2009, is that we will mercifully be unaffected in a qualitatve sense.

Some good news; this season we have moved to under vine cultivation, as opposed to previous regimes of straw mulching (loved by wildfires) and undervine mowing (vineyard looks like a park however weeds push their roots deeper to compete with the vines' roots).  This move has been a wonderful success.  As well as turning the undervine competition over and having the weeds die off and break down back into the soil it also opens up the soil (reducing any hard layer/compaction), to air and moisture, and it also has the ability to work compost into the soil.  Like all things vineyard related, timing is the key and when this activity is done correctly the result is really excellent.

So, here we stand in February and wonder where the season is going.  Hot and dry, a small crop.  Where earlier in the season the expectation was for a mid April harvest this is being revised to an earlier start.  Maybe early April, depending on the twists and turns of the Autumn.  The Heathcote Shiraz vineyard is looking healthy and strong and the fruit will be ready in another couple of weeks.  We have a bottling in mid March to begin to ready the 2013 wines for release later in the year.  

For sure, it's a testing cycle that makes up vineyard and winery work, but contemplating new wines beginning their evolution in bottle and another harvest, regardless how small, is very exciting.