Vineyard talk - what I am working on...

The sheep are still in the part of the vineyard with the latest budding varieties for just a few more days, but pruning is now finished. Not travelling overseas made it possible to do a large part of the pruning myself and to lead the team to pruning excellence. I also decided to prune the early ripening varieties later this year, delaying bud-burst to avoid the changeable and potentially wet and cold early spring spells we can get. However, the varieties we pruned first are already showing buds and a cold front made an appearance, natures challenges make the life of a vintner…

I love working in the vineyard, but even I forget how big 11.5 ha can be in a closed planted vineyard (with three times as many vines as a in conventional one). The organic and artisanal approach to winegrowing triggers also substantially more tractor and manual work. All for the love of wine…

Time for maintenance…

Fortunately, there are not many posts to replace as no harvest machine plays havoc in our vineyard but the boundary fence needs finally replacing. Let me know if you have time to help…

Wire dropping                                                            

Once the sheep have left the estate, I will invite our small office team to help dropping the wires. It will save them well on gym cost… The wires are part of the Trellis system and have to be released from the clips and dropped to ground level. It means walking down the entire row (and vineyard) dropping the wires that have been clipped at the different levels of the posts during the growing season. We will explain in a lot more detail why we use wire trellising in our future newsletters

Pruning the fruit trees

I made my wife happy by bringing home some pruned budding branches. In the warmth of our living room they bloomed to expansive bouquets and make for a beautiful sight. There are just a few more of the fruit- and nut trees to prune for lower yield to warrant high quality, flavoursome fruit. Much like for the vines. 

There is still a lot to do, but I always have time to personally pack your orders!”

Warmest, Hans


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