Another post from Joe the winemaker, my dad.

Welcome to week 2. I am back as promised with more basic wine information and photos to help you follow the entire cycle of  a year in the vineyard. As I mentioned in last week’s vineyard update I expected that you would be amazed by the change in the growth of the merlot vines we are following, but even I was estonished by the rapidity of the growth this past week. This is pure speculation on my part, but I believe that the late start of the vines due to an extremely harsh winter followed by record breaking temperatures the final week of April could be the reason.  (can anybody say global warming ?).

Our Norwegian lady friends (hello, ladies) who visited us 2 weeks ago, with Anthony Swift of  Wine Pleasures tours, can bear witness to the rapid change in the growth of the merlot. We are very pleased that we chose to lower the wires in the merlot when we did  because if we were attempting that with the present growth we would be knocking off far too many shoots (buds, future grapes). Fortunately for us the progress of the syrah and the cabernet saugvignon does not match that of the merlot this year. This is not unusual for the cab but very surprising for our syrah which is normaly ahead of the merlot. I attempted to take the photos in the same spot that I did for the first post and will continue to do so we have an accurate account of the progression of the vines. The majority of the photos show the same vines as week 1 and I have included a close up a  future  bunch of grapes. The “baby grapes photo” is something I always found intriguing and I hope you will also. We still have wires to lower in the cabernet but we are extremely happy with where we stand today. Hopefully my son will not read this but I think we will soon be able to cut back to  45 hour work weeks. I am not complaining because I have never felt heathier in my life and the fringe benefits are outstanding!

We are considering doing some weekend BBQ/Blending sessions for wine enthusiasts living in or visiting the  Carcassonne area this summer. give me some feedback if you find this interesting.

Thanks for following and remember to come back next week for more free wine information.