This week: 30th. March.

Weather Report Week Ending 30/3/07

Maximum Temperature for the week 29.5C (85F) on Tue.
Minimum Temperature for the week 6.6C (44F) on Sun.
Rainfall for the Week 13.4mm (38 points) 4 days of rain.
Weather data thanks to BOM & Nuriootpa Viticulture Research Centre.

All except one day this week below our long term average. Another 13mm of rain this week has now got everything looking nice and green. We have now had more than 30mm of rain in the last fortnight, as long as it keeps raining now, this is beginning to look like a very good (and very timely) opening to the season. Just what our vines need after a couple years of drought conditions.

This week in the vineyard:
We have now finished all of our grapes - the picture above shows us hand picking our 40 year old Grenache vines. This was our last parcel of fruit to be picked this year. We have had one of the lowest tonnage vintages in living memory this year. I will do a vintage wrap-up in a later post. I have now started cultivating the mulch we have on the surface of the soil, we are also trying to control the weeds that have started to germinate since it started raining. With the same pass we are also spraying under the vines, to control the weeds that have started to germinate. We have also started work on clearing non-native trees (mostly almond and olive) from one of the creeks that run through our property. We will eventually be planting native trees in the creek to try and stop the non natives from coming back again.