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Wednesday, July 3, 2024

Vintage 2024: Everything, Everywhere, All At Once

It's July! This is the month that many things happen in the vineyard all at once. The shoots are growing, berry set is occuring, weeds are growing and the grass needs mowing!
The photo on the right shows the west most rows of Auxerrois. Our task right now is to get the shoots that are in the alleys to be upright and shoot tucked. The first row has been shoot tucked but the second row has not. The shoots are growing out of the top trellis and will soon need to be hedged.
We managed to conquer the 5 rows of Auxerrois which was a day's work and we are now in the Chenin Blanc. But, while we were busy with the Auxerrois, the Chenin Blanc grew and looks like this:
For some reason, the vines in the linepost at the north end grow very vigorously and the weight of the growing shoot makes the shoot lean into the trellis and getting tangled there with their tendrils. We can't let this happen so we are cutting those leaning shoots to give us some time before we have to hedge.
As we work very closely with the vines, we can see that the Auxerrois and Chenin Blanc are past berry set and they look good! Here is a photo of the berry set in the Auxerrois and the Chenin Blanc:
While we focus on shoot tucking, this summer, we have a secret weapon. Our granddaughter is here to help us! Last year was her first year at Camp Vineyard and this year, she is quite the pro! This morning, my husband and I were tackling the Chenin Blanc and she did all of the mowing around the vineyard and 10 alleys of vines where the mower could pass without running into vines hanging into the alley.
If we are not careful and keep on task with the shoot tucking, our vineyard will look like this photo that I took on July 24, 2023!
Hopefully, we are poised this year to prevent the Everything, Everywhere, All At Once scenario like the one shown above!

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