This week: 7th. September

Weather Report Week Ending 7/9/07

Maximum Temperature for the week 21.1C (70F) on Thur. 4 readings above our monthly average of 17.5C.

Minimum Temperature for the week -1.0C (30F) on Sat. 2 readings above our monthly average of 7.0C.

Rainfall for the Week 0.2mm (1 point) 1 day of rain.

Weather data thanks to BOM & Nuriootpa Viticulture Research Centre.

Another warm week here in the Barossa. We are beginning to get very desperate for some reasonable rainfall. If we had some water available to us we would probably be considering giving our vines a drink. We don't normally water before Christmas, hopefully we will still get some of that natural irrigation from the sky.

This week in the vineyard:

All of our winter work is now finished. We are now getting ready to do a small area of replants, we are only planting a few vines this year because we will not have much water available to us. All of our cover crop has been mowed for the second time. I will need to start killing the cover crop shortly if we don't get some rain (it is using up what could be very valuable subsoil moisture).

I have been in Melbourne this week. I have applied for a Nuffield scholarship and went to Melbourne for the final round of interviews. The winners will be announced in Perth in Oct. I found the whole process very interesting and I think it is useful to spend some time with other enthusiastic farmers, to give you a different perspective on your own operation.

This weeks Photo shows our 40 year old Genache just starting to shoot. We are now at great risk from frost, however I am not expecting problems for another couple of weeks (closer to the next full moon). Some rain would also be useful to reduce our risk.