This week: 22nd. June

Weather Report Week Ending 22/6/07
Maximum Temperature for the week 13.2C (55F) on Sat. All 7 readings below our average. Minimum Temperature for the week -2.5C (27F) on Sat. All 7 readings below our average.
Rainfall for the Week 2.8mm (8 points) 4 days of rain.
Weather data thanks to BOM & Nuriootpa Viticulture Research Centre.

Another very cold week. All of our Maximums and Minimums were below average for this time of year. With one week to go in the month we are looking like setting a number of new records for being one of the coldest June's since 1997. One very severe frost this week - has really cleaned up the leaves that were still hanging on the vines. Still very dry, the rain we recorded this week has mostly been heavy dew, not enough to generate any runoff or improve our subsoil moisture's. We need more than 50mm of rain this coming week to make our average of 64.8mm.

This week in the vineyard:
Pruning continues - this week we have finished blocks of Shiraz, Sauvinion Blanc and Chardonnay. I have also been mowing winter weeds. I am also spraying under the vines with a knockdown herbicide to clean up the weeds that have started to come up, when the weather has been suitable. This week the Barossa Valley Technical group ran a seminar/ field day on coping with the drought. We looked at vineyard costs and how to minimise them in light of last years very low yields. We also looked at pruning to encourage the vines to get back to normal production levels as quickly as possible. There have been bud dissections done here in South Australia that show virtually no crop in the first 2-3 buds on each cane; in some varieties. We also had demonstrated to us some Pellenc machine pruners. The photo is of a machine that is pruning both sides of a two wire vertical trellis in one pass (this machine has the potential to save a lot of time for us growers if we could justify the A$100,000+ price tag not including the tractor).

This week: 15th. June

Weather Report Week Ending 15/6/07
Maximum Temperature for the week 13.4C (56F) on Sat. All 7 days below our average.
Minimum Temperature for the week -1.3C (29F) on Fri. We had 2 days above our average.
Rainfall for the Week 1.0mm (3 points) 2 days of rain.
Weather data thanks to BOM & Nuriootpa Viticulture Research Centre.

Another very cold week. All 7 days again below our max. average for this month of 14.2C. The high pressure systems that have caused or fine but cold days, are sitting much further south than is usual for this time of year. The weather maps at the moment look more like Summer maps than the Winter we should be having. Because the highs are so far south, they are blocking any cold fronts that are coming up from the south (where most of our winter rain normally comes from). Without some change in the current systems we run the risk of missing out on quite a bit of potential winter rainfall. This month we are looking yet again at well below average rainfall, we have only had 11.4mm, our average for June is 64.8mm. We still need more then 50mm to give us an average month.

This week in the vineyard:
Pruning continues - this week we have finished blocks of Shiraz, Riesling and White Frontignac. I have also been mowing winter weeds in the rows we haven't planted with a cover crop. With the same pass I am also spraying under the vines with a knockdown herbicide to clean up the weeds that have started to come up. We have also ordered a few Albarino vines to do a trial planting for Mad Dog. We may have a new product to launch if all goes well in 4-5 years time.

This week: 8th. June

Weather Report Week Ending 8/6/07

Maximum Temperature for the week 13.3C (56F) on Sat. All 7 days below our average.
Minimum Temperature for the week 1.3C (34F) on Tue. We had 3 days above our average.
Rainfall for the Week 9.4mm (27 points) 5 days of rain.
Weather data thanks to BOM & Nuriootpa Viticulture Research Centre.

Very cold this week. All 7 days below our max. average for this month of 14.2C. Even 4 nights were well below our average of 5.6C. We currently have had a large high pressure system sitting out in the Great Australian Bight for nearly a week, this means clear calm days and clear cold nights. I would expect that as the high pressure system finally moves past us we will get some very cold frosty nights. This system has been causing very good rainfall in the Eastern states, hopefully including the Murray Darling catchment area.

This week in the vineyard:
We have had a machine pruner working in our vineyard a few days again this week. We have had a contract hand pruning gang also start work. This gang is currently doing a hand detail behind the machine, once they are finished this we will be moving on to our blocks that will be rod and spur pruned. So far we have finished blocks of Cabernet, 90 year old Shiraz, Chardonnay and a small block of Riesling. The picture today is of part of our contract pruning gang working on some Cabernet in the early morning fog.

Barossa wins prime spot on Aussie Monopoly board.

The Barossa Valley has been voted as the most prestigious property on the new here and now Australia version of Monopoly. South Australia polled nearly half of the national vote that saw the Barossa Valley beat Adelaide for the prestigious spot traditionally occupied by Park Lane. South Australia and Western Australia have taken the highest value side of the board, while the Australian Capital Territory and Queensland fill the cheap side of the board. Sydney did not make it onto the board, New South Wales are being represented by Broken Hill, Tamworth and the Snowy Mountains on the orange spots. The game also includes some Aussie Icons for tokens including an Aussie Ute, thongs and a surf board. More details are available at http://monopoly.com.au/results.php . The game will be available in most stores from the 10th of this month.

This week: 1st. June

Weather Report Week Ending 1/6/07

Maximum Temperature for the week 19.9C (68F) on Sat. We had 4 days above our average.

Minimum Temperature for the week 2.0C (35F) on Sat. We had 4 days above our average.

Rainfall for the Week 18mm (51 points) 4 days of rain.

Weather data thanks to BOM & Nuriootpa Viticulture Research Centre.

A quite normal week for the Barossa, for this time of year. A very useful amount of rain again this week, however we still did not make our average rainfall for the month of May (a total of 35.8mm for the month with a long term average of 48.2mm). We have once again finished the month with above average temperature readings, our average maximum was 18.4C (long term average is 17.6C), our average minimum was 9.0C (long term average is 6.7C this was 2.3C above average).

This week in the vineyard:

We have now started machine pruning. The picture this week shows our contractor doing our pre prune. We will be sending a hand contracting gang through to do a hand detail in the next few weeks. As you can see the leaves are still hanging on quite well, but we will be getting into the pruning in a big way from this week. I would expect we will be finishing our pruning sometime in the middle of September.