Vintage 2016: Hot, Dry Summer

It has been a hot and dry summer so far. The last measurable rain that we had fell on May 30, when we had almost 1-inch of rain. Since that time, we have not recorded rainfall of any significance. June passed with no rain at all falling on our vineyard and newly planted vines. At one point, I thought our rain gauge was broken. It's not that Connecticut hasn't had rain events. We watched as weather patterns made it's way across the United States, reaching the western portion of Connecticut, and were especially hopeful on Thursday, July 14th and Monday, July 25th. As the storm system came across from the west to the east, they fizzled out just a few miles west of the Connecticut River.

Today is another day of praying for rain and this morning, we have had a steady rainfall. I do hope it amounts to something. In the meantime, we have managed to activate our irrigation system and before the vines were in a crisis state, started to irrigate portions of our vineyard that had the drip tubing in place. In my next blog, I hope to show you what my husband and our well installer Tony did to get us up and running with water.