Nature has unleashed its fury
At last count, 15 large trees were blown over on the Oranje Tractor Farm in the recent storm that lashed the south coast. Not all were quite as big as this big fella (pun intended ;() but most of them would have been classified as “widow makers”. It’s been a busy time cleaning up after the storm, with chainsaw melodies continuing to ring across the neighbourhood more than a week on.
Meanwhile, the pruning goes on…
The pruning of the precious Pinot vines is almost done. Here are some shots of our handiwork. We need to turn the gnarly scramble of canes (sticks) into a neat and trim version. This year, we are using a new (but very old) pruning method known as the Poussard Sap Flow strategy. Some very enthusiastic Italians have re-introduced this method (originally created by the French) across the world, and despite it’s simplicity of concept and logical principles, it is very challenging to do in an established vineyard. Luckily, we had the help of Marco & Cecilia - two lovely Italian winemakers who stayed with us a few weeks - to drill the basic concepts into us. We are still on a very steep learning curve.
Marco & Cecilia