Spring

Ay caramba! What just happened? The maddest, wettest, most brow-furrowing Spring anyone can remember has kept us all on our toes, particularly in the lead-up to flowering, with repeated episodes of perfect conditions for all manner of potential disease and pestilence.
Hopefully, the change of seasons will bring fine conditions while staying relatively cool and sunny.Although as it warms up, the amount of moisture emanating from the sodden soil should keep things fairly humid and conditions interesting.

December will see the last of the warp-speed growth evident in the vineyard from the Spring flush before the warmer weather of mid-Summer kicks in and dampens its enthusiasm. The vineyard has been absolutely singing so far and there is literally a buzz in the air as multitudes of insects do their things in a frenzy of feasting and fecundity. It is encouraging to see a proliferation of ladybirds out there which, in concert with other predatory insects and spiders, resident birds, frogs and reptiles, highlight a system in healthy balance and vindicates our shift in mindset to a more target-specific, minimal impact, integrated and sustainable approach to pest and disease management.

Running the 1969-planted non-irrigated vineyard through the last 12 years of drought has presented many challenges, but the recent return to a 'normal' long, cold Yarra Valley Winter, plus the wettest Spring since 1993 has us managing the vines for potential vigour rather than the usual coaxing them to the finish line in a parched soil. It seems the new normal is just as hard to predict as the old one.
We will keep the cover crop growing as long as we can to maintain competition for the vines and suck some excess moisture out of the soil. In fact, it is the cover crop that will need to be nurtured through the growing season as it has been impeded by continually wet feet due to near-on two months of soil at full moisture capacity.

We have consciously cut back over the last two years on the amount of ploughing between the vine rows in order to preserve soil structure, enhance rainfall infiltration and percolation through the soil then retaining soil moisture through the avoidance of bare soil. These considerations have hardly been necessary so far this year.
Some of the later varieties will be flowering around this time, which we must keep in mind while going about our business in the vineyard. We keep disturbance of these vines to a minimum as they set the crop, so blocks must be identified and worked around during this critical time.

All of the 2009 wines have been blended and bottled without filtration in the last month, thus avoiding the usual heat of summer. These will rest in the cool of the cellar until their collective release at our cellar door on the first weekend in May. Between now and the end of January, most of the 2010 vintage wines will receive a gentle rack/aeration and return to barrel in anticipation of their second year of maturation. For the 2010 Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Viognier, this will be their last or only handling prior to blending and bottling mid-2011.

Paul Bridgeman