Today we have sun, and hopefully the forecast predicts that we should have sun for the next week or two – we need it for the flowering! The weather here has been quite unusual for the last few months as, although we’ve enjoyed a bit of sunshine recently, the temperatures still stubbornly refuse to break the 20°C (68°F) barrier. I can recall years when we’ve reached these temperatures as early as February or March, albeit that this is not necessarily a good thing either…. I think our problem lies with the cold northerly winds which are quite unusual at this time of year, by now we should really be drawing our weather systems (and winds) from the west or south west.

The truth is that in the context of the vine cycle this is a very critical time of year where we really need a period of warm, dry, settled weather. The tiny, delicate grape flowers can be dislodged by rain, wind or excessive cold, and is they are not allowed to self-pollenate or ‘set’ to form the grape berries then a significant percentage of the year’s crop can be lost. Cold, unsettled weather can also result in what the French call ‘Millerandage’  (I think this is known as ‘Corrimiento’ in Spanish), which is when we end up with berries of different sizes within each bunch – where some berries have matured, and others have not. These bunches are largely unusable and the resultant crop can be quite poor.

As always we have our fingers crossed that nature will be kind to us.

Today we have sun, and hopefully the forecast predicts that we should have sun for the next week or two – we need it for the flowering! The weather here has been quite unusual for the last few months as, although we’ve enjoyed a bit of sunshine recently, the temperatures still stubbornly refuse to break the 20°C (68°F) barrier. I can recall years when we’ve reached these temperatures as early as February or March, albeit that this is not necessarily a good thing either…. I think our problem lies with the cold northerly winds which are quite unusual at this time of year, by now we should really be drawing our weather systems (and winds) from the west or south west.

The truth is that in the context of the vine cycle this is a very critical time of year where we really need a period of warm, dry, settled weather. The tiny, delicate grape flowers can be dislodged by rain, wind or excessive cold, and is they are not allowed to self-pollenate or ‘set’ to form the grape berries then a significant percentage of the year’s crop can be lost. Cold, unsettled weather can also result in what the French call ‘Millerandage’  (I think this is known as ‘Corrimiento’ in Spanish), which is when we end up with berries of different sizes within each bunch – where some berries have matured, and others have not. These bunches are largely unusable and the resultant crop can be quite poor.

As always we have our fingers crossed that nature will be kind to us.