The Mulching Begins

Gary, Philip, John (in the cab) and Darryl (from Laverstoke Park) with the spreader and the mountain of wood chip

Weeds are a big problem for organic vineyards, especially when the vines are trying to get established. After much debate we have settled on a mulch to control the weeds, comprising a mixture of green waste compost from Laverstoke Park and virgin wood chip from LC Energy. Last week we took delivery of 50 tonnes of compost and nearly 600 cubic metres of wood chip which arrived in 8 artic lorries.

We now need to distribute the stuff along the rows of vines about 30cm on each side and 10 cm high. To help us do this we will be using a special muck spreader which takes about one and a half tonnes per load. Only 150 loads to complete the job for the initial 5 acres!

Hopefully this will keep the weeds at bay for two to three years. We will be seeding an organic grassland mix between the rows.

The new love of my life!

Dick Bray, from Oakes Bros, delivers the new tractor

Slim, sleek and a right little goer...... yes the tractor!

On Friday my new tractor arrived all the way from Italy. Now that I'm on the wrong side of 50, I have discovered that a new tractor is more exciting than a sports car and almost certainly safer (and cheaper) than a new woman!

The tractor is a New Holland and is specially designed for vineyards. As it is only just over a meter wide it will easily fit between the rows of vines when we're spreading the mulch, cutting the grass and spraying the vines.

The challenge now of course is to learn how to drive the thing which inside looks like the Star Ship Enterprise with more levers than you can shake a stick at. I'm sure that by the end of next week I will be fully competent as I'm on a tractor course with my good friend John Brockwell.

Motorists and walkers of Albury should take cover!

Green Shoots - No, not the economy!

The vines have only been planted two weeks and already they are bursting into life!

I'm sure that Stephen will say that it's due to the tip top quality of the vines he has sourced, John will claim that it's down to the preparation of the land, the Rootgrow guys will state that it's on account of their product, Ernst and Jo will say that its because of the expert planting and Ivan will claim that he talked to them every day. But who cares... they are alive and growing!

Terry's Trellising

Ivan (left) and the team

The trellising is now nearing completion thanks to Mike Terry, Ivan and the team. It will have taken about ten days to install the 120 wooden end posts, 1,700 interim posts, 8,500 bamboo canes and more than 10,000 metres of wire to support the vines as they grow.

In spite of some difficult ragstone at the southern end of the vineyard, the work will be completed on time thanks to the tireless efforts of the guys in spite of the weather!

Next task is to mulch the vines which will hopefully keep the weeds at bay. The mulch will now comprise about 40 tonnes of green waste compost (20mm) mixed with 600 cu metres of wood chip (50mm).

Planting of the Vines (Pictures)

With Jo and her Planting Team from Germany

Ready to go!

Tim from Plantworks dipping the vines in Rootgrow

The first Vine? Well almost - Stephen broke the first!

Planting of the Vines

Video of the amazing Planting Machine

Having planted 8635 vines yesterday I am now the proud owner of a real vineyard.

The planting team from Germany arrived before 8.00am led by Jo (daughter of Ernst) and by the end of the day all the vines had been planted. All in all we planted 1723 Pinot Meunier, 2986 Pinot Noir, 2977 Chardonnay and 849 Syval Blanc on a plot of about 5 acres. Rows have been spaced 2m apart with 1.2m between the vines. All the vines were dipped in Rootgrow before planting, other than a control section of 100 in each of the major grape varieties.

The planting team who did a marvelous job were helped by various experts and willing helpers including Stephen, John Buchan, JB, Philip, not forgetting Roy who did a splendid job as official photographer and providing elevenses! Thanks also to Tim from Plantworks for supervising the application of the Rootgrow.

More pictures to follow.

Next is the trellising and then control of the dreaded weeds with mulch, which now looks like it will comprise a mix of 80% wood chip and 20% green compost!

The Layout of the Vineyard

As our primary aim is to produce a high quality organic bubbly, the vines we have chosen for the initial 5 acres are predominantly the varieties used in Champagne i.e. Chardonnay, Pinot Noire and Pinot Meunier. However we are also planting some Seyval which is a variety which does well in the UK. This will be used along with some of the Pinot Noire, to produce a still Rose. Overall we will be planting around 8500 vines with row spacing of 2m and 1.2m between each vine. As the plot isn't square this equates to 60 rows varying in length between 16o to 190 metres.

Only 10 days now before we start planting!