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.