Wednesday 25 March 2015

The Vineyard after Winter


During the winter we've been busy pruning and tying down our 21,000 vines. It's the "royal we" of course as Alex has done almost all the work! The old wood has been taken off the vineyard and burnt, and we are now replacing broken canes and repairing some of the trellising.

We are also spreading some biodynamic compost on the vineyard which adds organic matter and helps to put back some of the nutrients that the grapes have taken out of the soil.  The compost was made from buffalo manure and green waste compost mixed with various biodynamic preparations including yarrow, chamomile, stinging nettles, oak bark, dandelion and valerian. By treating compost in this way plants are able to make more effective use of cosmic forces!

So the vineyard is now all ready for the year ahead and all we have to worry about is the threat of frost once the vines have budded in the next couple of weeks. Hopefully we are well prepared, with the frost guard machine operational and the boujies all deployed.