In the Vineyard - July

By guest blogger John

After all the rain in May and then some in June we have now, since mid June, had sunshine every day and some quite warm weather. This has produced quite exceptional growth in the vines and even at this early stage we will have to start cutting back some of the canes to let more light into the vines and to make it easier to get around amongst them.

Lots of growth in the vines. You can see them stretching across the rows

The grapes are are fairly small as yet but some good sized bunches can be seen in the photo below. They will continue to swell and in August should start to change color in the Merlot vines. We always note the date that occurs and last year it was August 20th before even 20% had changed.

Large bunches of grapes

The re-graft of the Godello is a bit disappointing and of the grafts that survived last winter only a small number have produced any fruit. Hopefully we will get enough to make some wine and as the season progresses I'll get a better idea of how much we might get.

Great Blue Heron next to x-large flowers!

We often get Great Blue herons in the vineyard and perhaps you can guess the large flowers next to him in the photo above.