As I left home this morning the outside temperature was only 4°C (just under 40°F), and on the horizon I could not believe what I saw……. snow covered hillsides – in the middle of March! Unfortunately I was on a motorway at the time, otherwise I would have stopped to take a photo, so therefore you will just have to take my word for it. I could of course have made something up using Photoshop – perhaps a beautiful shot of Angela making a snowman in front of the bodega, but that would be missing the point. The real story is that it’s been a long, cold and wet winter, so far (and maybe it’s not over yet).

The good news is that out in the vineyard the pruning is finished and we are currently working on attaching the vines to the wires. Fortunately we now have small hand-held machines for doing this, so the whole process is speeded up considerably. Previously every single attachment had to be tied in a knot by hand! As soon as we have a period of dry weather we can start to burn the mountains of cuttings that have accumulated in the corner of each vineyard. Of course by burning the cuttings we reduce the possible spread of any fungus spores.

Significantly there is no new growth on the vines as yet. In some vintages we have had buds, shoots and even leaves on the plants by this time, but as I write this entry everything still lies dormant, which is actually no bad thing.

As I left home this morning the outside temperature was only 4°C (just under 40°F), and on the horizon I could not believe what I saw……. snow covered hillsides – in the middle of March! Unfortunately I was on a motorway at the time, otherwise I would have stopped to take a photo, so therefore you will just have to take my word for it. I could of course have made something up using Photoshop – perhaps a beautiful shot of Angela making a snowman in front of the bodega, but that would be missing the point. The real story is that it’s been a long, cold and wet winter, so far (and maybe it’s not over yet).

The good news is that out in the vineyard the pruning is finished and we are currently working on attaching the vines to the wires. Fortunately we now have small hand-held machines for doing this, so the whole process is speeded up considerably. Previously every single attachment had to be tied in a knot by hand! As soon as we have a period of dry weather we can start to burn the mountains of cuttings that have accumulated in the corner of each vineyard. Of course by burning the cuttings we reduce the possible spread of any fungus spores.

Significantly there is no new growth on the vines as yet. In some vintages we have had buds, shoots and even leaves on the plants by this time, but as I write this entry everything still lies dormant, which is actually no bad thing.