Go!!

Well, things are on their way. The rest of the cultivars has gone into bud burst. Shoot growth will rapidly increase in the next three weeks. Pre-suckering has been done on almost all the blocks already. Now we wait for proper shoot length to start suckering. We had 7mm of rain since yesterday. Nothing to stress about but it is definitely a warning of things to come.

Last year was a difficult year with regards to fungus in the vineyard. With loads of summer rains conditions were perfect for Downy Mildew. Spraying early this year is essential.

Here are a few shots of how things are looking now

Get set

Its been a rather quiet week. We started suckering some blocks, but not a lot. Spraying started early this year to avoid the disastrous downy mildew episode we had last year. The Chenin blancs, Chardonnay and Pinotages are fully budded. Waiting for the Sauvignon blanc, Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cinsaut, Merlot and the rest to wake up fully. I don't have much to write about this week, so I'll just post some pics of the sleepy guys. This weeks pictures have been taken with a LG QC900 cellphone - Not as good as the Panasonic Lumix FZ50 and Canon Powershot D10 that I normally use, but its ok.

Cabernet Sauvignon - Waking up

Pinotage

Cinsaut

On your marks...

Budding has started early this year due to the abnormal hot winter we had. Pinotage, Chenin blanc and the young vines are starting to awake after their winter slumber. Cabernet and the rest of the guys are still sleeping, at least for another week or two. Just a few pics of some of the early birds. This one is Chenin blanc

Noble

I went to see how things are going in the block Chenin blanc where we get some of our noble grapes from. It is situated 8km from the South Atlantic Ocean. Looking at the vines you can see that they are subjected to moist conditions quite a lot, which is ideal for getting Botrytis rot. The pruning went very well and the general condition of the block is very good.

I'm also adding two photos I took last year in July of a stunning sunrise. This week was raining and the weather was poor, so I didn't get to the vineyards enough to have something interesting for this week, although I find noble grapes very interesting. Next year when we harvest the noble I will write a detailed piece about Botrytis cinerea.