A very good feeling!

As you can see from these pictures we finally finished pruning everything this weekend.  We had just the  mourvèdre left, which we always leave until the end.  My brother-in-law  Billy was here again, and lucky him, he got to finish it up for us, all by himself while Matt and I were plowing and spraying our magic concoction of goat milk whey, fresh cow manure, clay and basalt on the vines.  That was this year's recipe for the bio-dynamic pruning past.  Hopefully it will do the trick, and keep the mildew spores from propagating on the vines since it was a very wet winter and there were plenty of spores left out there from last year.  The weather here has been beautiful, but also wet, we're expecting more rain throughout the next week, the bud are just starting to burst, and we're seeing the first leaves opening up.

 Matt has been spending a lot of time getting things in order, making sure the sprayer works, fiddling around with various things that have been forgotten over the winter, and playing with his new tractor. We actually had both the tractors out last weekend, which was great!  I'm trying to get used to driving the new one, I have to admit, I'd rather be on the 63 Massey, it's so familiar, but the new one is certainly more powerful, and definitely more adapted to the work we'll be using it for.  At least we can use the Massey to plough, and during harvest for sure! 

 This is always a very busy time, often leaving Matt frustrated that he doesn't have more time to dedicate to the vineyards, but unfortunately, La Gramière doesn't yet pay the bills, so he has to continue to balance his day job at Cisco Systems with all of the pressures of the vines.  Everyone is saying that we'll need to treat early this year due to the high concentration of mildew last year, so we're trying to get everything ready so that when it's time we can get out there and protect our future grapes!  It's funny, I can't say why, but in my gut, I have the feeling that 2009 is going to be a great year.  Let's hope I'm right!

Comments

[Joe Lillard]

Good looking vines!! You are right about 2009; farmers and vintners always have to think positively.
Daddo

[Gabriella Opaz]

I'm sure all will go well! Fingers crossed ;-)