Winter 2014

Winter 2014

The portable Vineyard- and Winter 2014. 

The pruning was done two weeks ago, end of Autumn with 99.99% of the leaves dropped.

But! What is surprising are some new buds!

What does this mean?

An anomaly I hope- spring was still a full season away!

This year the pruning was severe and not- leaving at least a full cane for a few of the tubs and planted vines. Let's see what is croppable next vintage, although the Foxy Wine Vine will indubitably be prolific with no outside help at all!

There was some replenishing of stakes- rotten ones removed and in place a plastic coated steel tube.

No more trying to get cuttings going- last year's did not survive the lack of watering that #2Son was supposed to be doing while I was away.

The irrigation system I dreamed up a year ago has yet to be implemented, but then so was replanting all the tubs into the yard has not been done either, but now- four years from now we may be out of this place- and I do want to keep a few of the plants, if not all.

Winter 2014 may be very different from the last few winters- mild in fact? The last vintage was not bad, but I think that if I can only get 6 litres off fifty plants, maybe time to let the Portable Vineyard go...

Wine tasting for Winter 2014

After a disappointing opening of 2000 and 2001 vintages of Basket Press bottles from Rockfords in the Barossa Valley [South Australia] the last few weeks, and luckily the last of the cases too. The last bottle of the 1996 and one of the 2002 did NOT disappoint AT ALL! Maybe a vertical tasting of what is in the cellar over the next few months is in line to make sure I am not keeping flat brown wines down there! So- who wants to do some small vertical tastings with me? 2001 to 2012?

Sharing a 2002 and a 2003 in Buninyong with my brother and sister-in-law recently was a pleasant experience.

In any case, I will be definitely going through the rest of the cases in the cellar by the time the Winter 2014 is over with help or not! The Basket Press of 1998 consumed last night was good, still some life, but probably not the $220 worth that I saw on an auction site later.