Tim's Ravings

Last year, still scarred by the drought, I told myself I’d never get sick of the rain, whatever havoc it wrought. While I worried about disease in the vineyard, I revelled in the green, I wrote about the earth healing, yada yada yada…

One year further away from the last drought (and yes, I know that means one year closer to the next) I can officially declare that I am well and truly over the extreme rain and want it to stop. Yesterday please. 

We’re awaiting delivery of a new spray cart to take our fight against disease in the vineyard to the next level. It’s finally due here next week, after a herculean battle with global supply chain shortages and containers falling off ships… My greatest hope is that its arrival dries up the rain, just as the installation of solar pumping in our vineyard ‘ended’ the drought. Fingers crossed. 

We’re lucky – most of the vines are on gentle slopes, with gravelly soils over clay offering reasonable drainage. The mid-row cover crops are doing their bit to suck up the water too, but there are limits to mitigating such frequent, prolonged and heavy rain events; and vines (like all plants) are not especially happy with wet feet. 

Having said that, everything seems to be thriving for the moment, with good vigour resulting in the need to shoot-thin (to reduce the crop weight and maintain air flow in the canopy) and de-sucker (removing unwanted growth around the base of the trunks) the whole vineyard. Development is nice and even throughout, and the team did an excellent job pruning, so the shoots are well spaced and pointing in the right direction. We’re up to date with our wet weather spray regime, and are closely monitoring the vines for signs of stress and disease. 

Our beautiful outdoor spaces at the winery are lush and verdant, but the winery has flooded twice so far this season, and we are braced for what is to come over the next month. The water table is full to the brim, all dams are full including the enormous one at Windamere that is at 100% and spilling for the first time in 30 years, surging into the Cudgegong River and cutting roads off (including trapping Helen at home!). 

Wish us luck!