It's been a little while since I updated the blog but here we are again.

Since last time Roger, Jeremy, and I have been hard at work over at Beaulieu Vineyard. I have to admit now, that I have been skiing for a week so Roger and Jeremy have undoubtably done more than I have. But when we were all there together we had all but finished the pruning and tying in the vines. The vineyard is now looking very tidy indeed. New posts had been ordered for the ones broken over the winter, and arrived just before I left to go skiing. We have organised for someone to come and put the posts in for us, and that may already have been done as I have not caught up with the guys yet.

So, just in time for the buds to start swelling and breaking, we're done. That's with a lot more extra work this year due to it being our first year in this vineyard. We now are starting to think about the first mowing of the vineyard as the ground between the vines is covered in grass, as is generally the case in English Vineyards. We also need to start thinking about weedkilling under the vines and the first spray of this years spray program. Again, we are going to need to do more work this year on nutrition and disease prevention. The vineyard looks as if it got a bad attack of Downy Mildew late last year, which has caused a lot of the canes to rot over the winter. This causes two major problems, firstly there is less wood to choose for the coming year and secondly, the remaining wood harbours the spores which under the right conditions will start the infection again. I had the same problem here at Marlings Vineyard, when we moved in here about 5 years ago. With a carefully designed disease and nutrition programme, and lots of attention to canopy management maintaining good airflow through the vines, I have managed to stay disease free for the last 2 years. 2 years where the weather was perfect for for high disease pressure. So with some careful management I am sure we can achieve the same results.

Back here at Marlings Vineyard, we have finished pruning, tying down and removing the vines we are replacing this year. We have mown for the first time as well. The only thing I need to do this week to stay ahead is to weedkill under the vines and to do a once over of the sprayer to make sure it's ready for the coming season. I will chase up the vine supplier to see when they are arriving and prepare the ground for that. I'm also going to get into the winery this week to get our 2008 wines ready for bottling which if everything goes to plan will be in the next 2 weeks. 

Thx for reading this and I'll be back soon.