At the end of May I wrote that our weather conditions so far this year have not exactly been ideal for growing fruit. We always try to explain that in our location, immediately adjacent to the Ocean, conditions are often unpredictable, to say the least, and can change very quickly. Until today, I’m afraid to say that the month of June has been pretty much the same – on some days alternating from rain to warm sunshine perhaps three or four times within a 24 hour period. As illustrated last month, every bodega now have their tractors working overtime (giving treatments). Indeed, only this morning I was following a couple along the road as I entered our village of Barrantes. The other downside of having to treat our vines so much is quite simply the cost. For example, we have already used our entire quota for this summer within the space of a couple of months (some six or seven weeks before our normal cut-off point, after which time we are obliged to stop, regardless of the weather). We are now hoping that the summer solstice might have introduced a change in our fortunes, at least in the short-term, as the forecast is now set fair for the coming days. We shall see!

With the ‘vine vigour’ that this weather brings our people are now hard at work thinning the canopy (stripping all the unwanted, thick foliage in order that the small bunches get the sun exposure that they will require to eventually ripen. At the same time this work opens up the canopy allowing it to ‘breath’ so that humidity does not get trapped underneath. Today’s picture shows the result of that work which is both slow and painstaking.