Another Airport - this time JFK New York

Well this blog comes to you from New York. I am waiting for a flight to the UK, where I will be spending the weekend before flying on to Barcelona to have a look at wine growing in Spain. This week I have spent here in New York and in Maryland, I have been talking to wine promotion people and regional marketing organizations. I am interested in how regions brand, and then market themselves - as I feel the Barossa Valley is not doing as good a job as it could at this. My Nuffield scholarship that I am on at the moment is helping me find out how other regions are doing this and giving me lots of ideas that the Barossa might like to try.
The photo today was taken in Washington state, it is of the entrance to the Red Mountain AVA, a relatively small but, I think up and coming area for premium grapes.
Back at home it continues to rain in small amounts. We have had 20mm for the week, however this was spread over 5 days (useful, but not ideal). Just another piece of news I have from home, this week the Barossa Grape and Wine association appointed a CEO. He is Sam Holmes, and I look forward to meeting him and working with him when I get back home.

Boise, Idaho

I am currently in Boise, Idaho. I have spent most of the last week in the Washington wine growing area. For a relatively young wine growing region, they are making some amazingly good wines. There are also some of the worlds best winemakers working here. So far I have been very fortunate with the weather - everywhere that I have been has been fine and warm but not too hot. This coming week I will be flying to the west coast of the USA. The photo this week is of sunset in Washington state taken near Dayton.

This week at home in the Barossa we have only had 4.4mm of rain for the week. This is only enough to keep things damp, but we do still need some heavy soaking rains before the end of winter.

First week of own study in California

I have now been here in California for nearly a week. I have spent all week in the grape growing areas near San Francisco. I have been to Lodi and the Napa and Sonoma valleys, I am currently in Davis. I was able to get a quick introduction to some of the viticulture research that is being done here at UC Davis. Next week I will be flying to Idaho and from there going to Washington state.
Back home in the Barossa Valley it continues to be cold and rainy. We have had another 8.2mm of rain for the week and are now only about 12mm short of setting a 10 year record for July rainfall. It has also been very cold, 2 nights we recorded below zero temperatures and a couple of days only struggling up to 10C.

Back in Australia - for now

I have now been back in Australia for nearly a week. I have not been home, my family has been holidaying with me on the Gold Coast in Queensland. I have been enjoying some much cooler weather than we got in the Philippines and China, while my family has escaped the cold and rainy weather back home. Tomorrow they will be going back home, to normality and school, while I will be flying out to the San Francisco to start the solo stage of my Nuffield study. I will be away for another 8 weeks before I see home again. It has been faantastiic to catch up with my wife and family and have a bit of a chance to recharge my batteries before diving into my own study. I will try to update my blog a little more regularly, now that I am on my own.
Back at home in the Barossa it has been raining again this week. We have had approx. another 12.5mm of rain, we have now had our average rainfall for July - anything more this month is a much needed bonus, as we are still behind (by about 50mm) our average for the year.

Post from the Philippines

Well our global focus program is winding up now. We have just left Manila on our way back to Australia. We stayed at the International Rice Research Institute. This was an very good place to end our world tour, considering how crucial rice is to so much of the worlds population and how much world rice stocks influence grain prices. We have seen how this institute is trying to improve rice yields to offset the increase in world population and at the same time, the reduction in area that is being planted. The photo shows rice paddy's in the Philippines, with a monsoonal shower in the background.
Back home in the Barossa it has been raining and quite cold again. We had about 26mm of rain for the week ending Fri. 11th July.

Flying in China

We are about to get on a domestic flight in China from Guangzhou to Nanjing. As is usual with our group, the flight is delayed, so I have a little time to update my blog. China is a country of contrasts, they are obviously expanding at a furious rate, but at the same time a lot of the farming is being done much like it has been done for hundreds of years. There are very few young farmers in this country - all the young people want to do is move to the cities and get jobs in the many factories here. Farming is considered a very low class occupation, until this attitude changes, I do wonder how China will be able to feed itself. The photo today shows fruit and vegetables for sale in one of the many wet markets we have seen here.

Back home it has been raining this week, not sure how much, looks like around about 10mm. our season is shaping up to be fairly dry - we will need a really wet month soon!

Update from LAX

We are in the middle of a long layover in LAX as part of our Nuffield global focus tour. We are currently in the One World club lounge during a 8 hour wait for a connecting overnight flight to Hong Kong. This is a very nice lounge, much nicer than some we have used during our travels. The last 5 days have been spent in north and western Oklahoma. The usual comment that we have been getting is, why are you going there? Well we have been learning about all kinds of things, from dairy operations (yet again) to cheese making (somewhat related) to oil production and wind energy. The photo shows a fairly late wheat crop being harvested in the Oklahoma panhandle under quite threatening skies.

We have had very little rainfall back home, it looks like we have only had 0.8mm for the week.