Pretty much within a couple of days of picking the last fruit of 2009, the sun finally disappeared and the skies turned a more familiar autumnal grey. Then, a few days later the heavens opened, and the rain came down…… stair rods, to use an old-fashioned expression.

Of course this did not stop the work of cleaning the cases that we use for picking, for two reasons. Firstly, our guys have to be well water-proofed against the pressure washers anyway, and secondly, the rain actually helps to loosen the dirt a little. Indeed, if the cases sit outside waiting to be cleaned in hot sunshine, then the sticky grape juice simply bakes on and becomes even more difficult to clean. To be honest, the way the rain is coming down at the moment perhaps we don’t even need the machines!

Inside the cellar we have a backlog of orders to prepare, but we really need to finish cleaning before we can even contemplate this. For example, our bottling and labelling hall is currently filled with stock that we usually keep in the area into which the presses are emptied. Emptying presses is probably the messiest part of the whole harvest, hence the fact that we have to keep the area completely clear.

We hope that within a week or so normal service will be resumed.