This week: 26th. Jan.

Weather Report Week Ending 26/1/07
Maximum Temperature for the week 31.9C (89F) on Thurs.
Minimum Temperature for the week 11.8C (53F) on Mon.
Rainfall for the Week 39.2mm (112 points) 3 days of rain.
Weather data thanks to BOM & Nuriootpa Viticulture Research Centre.

Much cooler week this week. Lots of rain last weekend, including the 20.2mm last fri. we had a total of 59.4mm in 4 days. We have had some splitting of berries, however it has not been as bad as I first feared. This month has been the first month since last April (9 months) that we have exceeded our monthly average rainfall. Our average for Jan. is 15.5mm, we have so far had 65.6 for the month. While the rain is nice, it makes life a little challenging for us grapegrowers when it comes at this time of the year.

This week in the vineyard:
We picked our first grapes this week. We have picked all of our Sauv. Blanc. for Yalumba. We didn't find anywhere near as many grapes as we were hoping for, I think we may be in for one of our smallest vintages here in the Barossa in living memory. We are continuing to sample all of our white varieties and we will sample our first blocks of Shiraz this coming week. We currently have Chardonnay at about 11 baume, our wineries will be looking to take that at about 12, so we may be picking some of that towards the end of this week. We are hoping that the rain will now hold off for the next 4 weeks or so, to give us a chance to get most of our crop off.

McNaught's comet

This photo was taken tonight over our vineyard of McNaught's comet. I have been wathching it for several nights now and decided to get my camera out and see if I could get a shot of it. It is said to possibly be the brightest comet to visit our skies this century.

This week: 19th. Jan.

Weather Report Week Ending 19/1/07
Maximum Temperature for the week 38.5C (101F) on Tue.
Minimum Temperature for the week 13.4C (56F) on Sun.
Rainfall for the Week 20.2mm (57 points) 1 day of rain.
Weather data thanks to BOM & Nuriootpa Viticulture Research Centre.

I love a sunburnt country of droughts and flooding rain. I will report on more in next weeks blog, but we have had a large tropical low parked to the north of us which has dumped a huge amount of rain on us this weekend. The first 20mm fell on Fri. but up until now (Sun. night) we have had 58mm, in fact parts of SA have had well in excess of 100mm. We have had some damage to our vineyard (berries splitting) and I am in something of a quandary as to what to do about our spray program. This rain has washed off all the chemical we had protecting our fruit from disease, but we are now inside of withholding periods to apply any more on most varieties. I am hoping we don't have another rain event like this one in a fortnight. The first photo this week shows a rather mist and Wintry (?) view of the Barossa Valley. The second is of a Shiraz bunch showing split berries as a result of the rain.

This week in the vineyard:
We are now ready to start picking grapes. We have been sampling most of our whites and we should start picking Sauv. Blanc on Tues of this week. We have Chardonnay at 10.9 baume as well so this should not be too far off picking. The rain will have reduced baumes a little so we will be sampling again before we pick anything, just to make sure they are ready. This week Hardi sprayers did a demo of their current model of vineyard sprayer in our vineyard. The last picture shows this sprayer in our Merlot.

Tour Down Under in the Barossa

The Tour Down Under came to the Barossa Valley on Wed of this week. My photo shows some of the riders going past vineyards not far from our place. The Barossa ranges are in the background. Results from the race can be found at http://www.tourdownunder.com.au/node.

This week: 12th. Jan.

Weather Report Week Ending 12/1/07

Maximum Temperature for the week 40.2C (104F) on Wed.

Minimum Temperature for the week 9.3C (49F) on Mon.

Rainfall for the Week 6.2mm (17 points) 3 days of rain.

Weather data thanks to BOM & Nuriootpa Viticulture Research Centre.

Another very hot week this week. The vines continue to be at verasion. The picture this week is the same bunch as last week showing how much colour change has occurred in only 1 week.

This week in the vineyard:

I took a couple of days off this week, a short break before we get into the madness of vintage. We had our first samples of grapes analysed this week Sauv. Blanc is at about 7.5 Baume and White Fronignac is at 7. One of our wineries is asking for all whites to be sampled next week. I am expecting that our first grapes will be coming off in 2 - 3 weeks.

Vote for the Barossa Valley

Monopoly in Australia are going to produce an new Aussie version of Monopoly. They are asking for people to vote for their favorite Aussie places. The Barossa Valley is one of the South Australian places you can vote for. Please go to http://www.monopoly.com.au/ and click on the map of S.A. and vote for the Barossa!

This week: 5th. Jan.

Weather Report Week Ending 5/1/07
Maximum Temperature for the week 35.7C (96F) on Thurs.
Minimum Temperature for the week 12.3C (54F) on Sun.
Rainfall for the Week 1.4mm (4 points) 1 day of rain.
Weather data thanks to BOM & Nuriootpa Viticulture Research Centre.

Well a rather hot week this week. We recorded above 30C every day this week, and one very warm night (minimum 25.2C on Fri.). This will really hustle the vines towards ripening. This week's photo is of some 30 year old Shiraz showing typical hen and chicken and the beginnings of verasion.

This week in the vineyard:

We have been preparing equipment for grape picking - washing and painting trailers and bins etc. First grape samples will be sent to our wineries on Tues. I have also been doing paperwork in preperation for picking, getting spray diaries organized and load sheets printed (to allow us to track every load of grapes from the vineyard to the winery.

Summary of 2006 weather

January:
Temperatures, Max. 42.6C (109F) Min. 10.2C (50F)
Rainfall 17.2mm (50 points) 5 rain days
297 hours of sunshine recorded
297.2 mm of evaporation recorded
Feburary:
Temperatures, Max. 36.46C (97F) Min. 9.52C (49F)
Rainfall 32.8mm (93 points) 4 rain days
282.4 hours of sunshine recorded
209.8 mm of evaporation recorded
March:
Temperatures, Max. 36.7C (98F) Min. 6.0C (43F)
Rainfall 65.4mm (186 points) 4 rain days
290 hours of sunshine recorded
217.0 mm of evaporation recorded
April:
Temperatures, Max. 23.4C (74F) Min. 1.5C (35F)
Rainfall 40.2mm (115 points) 12 rain days
179.3 hours of sunshine recorded
82.0 mm of evaporation recorded
May:
Temperatures, Max. 18.2C (65F) Min. -2.1C (28F)
Rainfall 47.2mm (135 points) 11 rain days
144.8 hours of sunshine recorded
49.6 mm of evaporation recorded
June:
Temperatures, Max. 17.3C (63F) Min. -4.5C (24F)
Rainfall 28.8mm (82 points) 15 rain days
169.9 hours of sunshine recorded
39.2 mm of evaporation recorded
July:
Temperatures, Max. 20.8C (69F) Min. -0.6C (31F)
Rainfall 39.4mm (112 points) 17 rain days
155.8 hours of sunshine recorded
45.4 mm of evaporation recorded
August:
Temperatures, Max. 23.7C (75F) Min. -1.4C (29F)
Rainfall 11mm (31 points) 12 rain days (record low rainfall for August)
235.8 hours of sunshine recorded
77.0 mm of evaporation recorded
September:
Temperatures, Max. 29.3C (85F) Min. 2.4C (36F)
Rainfall 20.0mm (57 points) 6 rain days (near record low rainfall for September)
242.4 hours of sunshine recorded
143.2 mm of evaporation recorded
October:
Temperatures, Max. 36.8C (98F) Min. 0.0C (32F) (record max. for October)
Rainfall 0.0mm (0 points) 0 rain days (record low rainfall for October)
315.5 hours of sunshine recorded
219.8 mm of evaporation recorded (average is 145.7mm)
November:
Temperatures, Max. 37.7C (100F) Min. 3.0C (37F)
Rainfall 25.2mm (72 points) 8 rain days
297.1 hours of sunshine recorded
250 mm of evaporation recorded
December:
Temperatures, Max. 41.2C (106F) Min. 4.1C (40F)
Rainfall 19.6mm (56 points) 5 rain days
303.6 hours of sunshine recorded
282.2 mm of evaporation recorded

2006 in Summary:
Average max. temperture for Nuriootpa is 21.2C (70F)
Average for 2006 was 21.2C (70F)
Average min. temperature for Nuriootpa is 9.0C (48F)
Average for 2006 was 8.2C (47F)

Average rainfall for Nuriootpa is 491.1mm (1400 points)
Total rainfall for 2006 was 326mm (930 points)
All weather data thanks to BOM and Nurootpa viticulture research centre