Some parts of Northern Europe have experienced the wettest month of June ever recorded. This summer it has become quite common to hear that an entire months rain has fallen in a matter of hours, causing traffic chaos and flash flooding in some areas.

Of course, for our vineyards, this has not been great news. Any temperature above about 15°C with humidity of between 75% and 98% provides ideal conditions for the germination of oidium (also known as powdery mildew) and mildew (downy mildew). Whilst this atrocious weather is a disaster for grape growers, our suppliers of vineyard treatments must be rubbing their hands with glee. Consequently our tractors have been busy, as the inclement weather has obliged us to spray more than we would really like.

Clearly some grapes have already been lost as the office of our local denomination have already declared that this years harvest will be greatly reduced. I guess that after the enormous, record-breaking harvest of 2011, a reduction of kilos was only to be expected, although no-one could have foreseen the reason why.

By the way, don’t worry, the photo is not of me, and there are two reasons why it couldn’t be. Firstly, the photographer has hair, and secondly, I only use Nikon cameras! 

Some parts of Northern Europe have experienced the wettest month of June ever recorded. This summer it has become quite common to hear that an entire months rain has fallen in a matter of hours, causing traffic chaos and flash flooding in some areas.

Of course, for our vineyards, this has not been great news. Any temperature above about 15°C with humidity of between 75% and 98% provides ideal conditions for the germination of oidium (also known as powdery mildew) and mildew (downy mildew). Whilst this atrocious weather is a disaster for grape growers, our suppliers of vineyard treatments must be rubbing their hands with glee. Consequently our tractors have been busy, as the inclement weather has obliged us to spray more than we would really like.

Clearly some grapes have already been lost as the office of our local denomination have already declared that this years harvest will be greatly reduced. I guess that after the enormous, record-breaking harvest of 2011, a reduction of kilos was only to be expected, although no-one could have foreseen the reason why.

By the way, don’t worry, the photo is not of me, and there are two reasons why it couldn’t be. Firstly, the photographer has hair, and secondly, I only use Nikon cameras!