June 2001

June 2001
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Mud, Mud Glorious Mud

Andrew sent his thoughts on the vineyard layout. He made the following points;

Cabernet at the very top of the hill is the best option as far as climate and terrain are concerned. It is more resistant to wind. The best clones here are CS163 and C515 as they are more vigorous and carry a heavier crop, therefore are better suited to windy locations. There will be very little difference in their ripening.
The Mourvedre should be placed on the slopes with early morning sun but, as it is more vigourous should be planted at a spacing of 1.5 metres not the standard 1.2 metres.
The Shiraz is best on the warmest slopes and we should use the largest possible area for planting by not wasting space on roads between the clones. Clones can change within the row as long as they are carefully marked.

Taking this into account and the fact that our nursery man had extra Mourvedre to offer us we decided to take them and fully plant the vineyard this year. Manie juggled it skillfully together on his spreadsheet and we ended up with the following;

At the very top of the hill which is windier, cooler and gets the sun less in the morning, we will put 2500 x Cabernet Sauvignon CS163 on R99 and 3000 x Cabernet Sauvignon CS169 on R99.

Slightly lower but on the same small plateau will be 2000 x Cabernet Sauvignon C515 on R99 and 2800 x Cabernet Sauvignon CS15 on R99. This area is slightly warmer as it faces more NW than N and so gets more evening sun.

These 2 Cabernet blocks make up 3.4 hectares of the total to be planted this year.

Lower down again and facing W through NW to NNW is a steeper slope where we will place 8000 x Shiraz SH5C on R99, 8000 Shiraz SH9C on R99, and 3000 x Shiraz SH1 on R99. This is the warmest slope and is more protected from the wind, especially the destructive East wind. This will be around 6.25 hectares of the total area planted.

The Mourvedre (5000 x MTIIA on R99) will go on the lowest slope of this year's planting. This is an unusual slope which faces from NE through N to NW. It is on a spur of the Glenrosa poking out into the valley formed by the perennial stream and is more weathered than the Glenrosa higher up. This gets more early sun and parts of the block are in shadow in the early evening. This combination of poorer soil and less intense sunlight hours should be good for this variety, with it being so vigourous. Also the wind will be less strong in this more sheltered area which will suit it better, again because being such a vigourous variety it is more susceptible to wind damage. This will form 1.6 hectares of the total area planted.

As you may have worked out the planting area has gone from the planned 10 hectares to 11.25 as if by magic. Unfortunately this means proportionally higher overall costs for poles, vines, area under irrigation, drainage and labour to build it all.

Anyway as the vines have arrived and have to be planted there is not much to do but just go for it.

At least as Andrew would say it is a beautifully balanced vineyard!

Just as the vines were arriving and planting started the winter arrived in earnest. In just two days it rained 150mm and as all the irrigation trenches were still open we swung into disaster recovery mode. The blocks were soaked and so planting was delayed by 10 days. One saving grace was that it was so cold that the vines were in no danger of waking up before they were in the ground.

Memories of last year come to mind as the dried streams up in the hills above the farm suddenly became torrents and water rushed down towards our waiting dams. This time Manie's weir was there to tame the flood and it worked a treat.

The snow fell steadily in the foothills above the vineyard and the mist came down.

Soon both dams were full again with the water needed to see out newcomers through the dry summer.

While all this was going on the cellar plans were being drawn up. It is true of architects the world over that they will try to make things as intricate as possible. We rejected the helipad on the roof with flying buttresses leading to an open "thought space" atrium and Japanese gravel garden and instead asked an eminently practical friendly local winemaker to think about the sort of space we would need. He came up with a rectangular building 35m x 13m two stories high. Then we decided where to put it. All much to the chagrin of the architect who was starting to enjoy himself. The plans will be put in to the local authority for rezoning so we can start early next year.

With the mist and weather closing in Tom, Mrs G-W and the G-W sprogs headed to the Northern hemisphere for a bit of sun and wine tasting in the Cote du Rhone. Silly not to really....but more about that next month.

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