It’s Monday morning and we’ve probably received about half the month’s rainfall in one night. I didn’t hear it stop. So it seems like after the promising start to the summer, it will just fizzle out into autumn.
But I’m not that bothered really, as the young UK vines have had a lot to drink and after suffering from the lack of rainfall in June/July, they can’t have any complaints anymore, and have responded with some good growth.
We have seen some Potassium and Magnesium deficiency in some of the vines, even though we added this to the soil before we ploughed it. But because of the dry weather it has taken quite a while to be dispersed throughout the soil and consequently into the roots of the vines. Although it has been easy to treat with foliar sprays, so all is well.
The guys should finish the trellising this week. It has taken them much longer than they predicted, due to our dry, flinty, chalk soil. Which is great for vines, but not so easy to smash posts into!
It will soon be time to swap my attention over to Bordeaux, where the fruit is ripening well in the hot weather, and fingers crossed for a dry September so we can have yet another great wine in the cellar.
I’ll probably be heading out after my birthday on the 15th (will be 30!!!!!), and start getting ready for my favorite time of year, and am glad to say I will be joined by my younger brother Tom who is flying back from Oz just to help out!
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