September
Stephen Doyle
Freezing, windy and wet. Rain = 74 mm. Temp = 9.4 degrees C.
Actually its not as bad as it looks.
You occasionally get to see the sun again between sleet showers and scuds of rain from the South West. We often hear our first thunder for the season sometime in September, and in recent years we have experienced some of our heaviest snow falls. So how can that be all bad?
The pruning that was definitely completed during August is absolutely definitely completed during September. (and sometimes it's absolutely finally definitely completed in early October) I suppose the point here is that the weather has a lot to answer for at this time of the season.
The trellises are checked for damage, wires replaced where necessary, and the irrigation is given a run to make sure any repairs can be carried out well before the summer pressure really mounts. An early organic Copper spray is applied late in the month (if the Chardonnay has burst earlier than normal) to give a little more frost protection. Because
Bloodwood is so well air drained, we have never been frosted during the growing season but we do all we can to give this "luck" our helping hand. The sheep are removed kicking and screaming from the vineyard by mid-month and the foliage training wires are dropped so they don't get in the way of the young growth.
