Archive
Every entry, filed by the calendar
Twenty-eight entries across six sections, in the order the work happens rather than the order it was written.
Pruning
January–March- Pruning is next year's cropAlmost the whole decision about how much fruit there will be is taken in January with a saw, on wood grown last summer, months before anything is green.
- Cane or spurTwo ways to leave buds on a vine, and what each assumes about the winter.
- Counting budsThe number left is a yield forecast made in the cold.
- The frozen caneWood cut at minus ten behaves differently under the blade.
- Burying the vineWhere winters are hard enough that the trunk is put under soil.
Bud Break
April–May- One night in MayA single frost after the buds have swelled can remove the crop. What is done about it and how little of it works.
- Air drainageCold air runs downhill like water. Why the good ground is on the slope.
- Wind machines and firesTwo old answers to a frost night, and what each actually achieves.
- Late pruningDelaying the cut to delay the bud, and the trade that comes with it.
- Secondary budsThe vine's own insurance, and why it is a poor one.
Green Work
June–July- The canopy is the engineLeaf area decides how much sugar the fruit can get. Everything in summer is about arranging leaves.
- Shoot thinningRemoving growth by hand in early summer to concentrate what is left.
- Leaf pluckingOpening the fruit zone to air and light, and the sunburn risk that follows.
- HedgingCutting the top off the row, and why it is done more than once.
- Green harvestDropping unripe bunches on the ground on purpose.
Veraison
August- The week it changesColour, softening and sugar all begin within a few days. The vine switches from growing to ripening.
- Uneven ripeningTwo bunches on one vine at different stages, and what causes it.
- NettingBirds arrive the week the fruit sweetens. Nets go on and stay on.
- SamplingWalking the block picking berries to measure, and why the sample is the hard part.
Harvest
September–October- Picking against the weatherThe decision is rarely about perfect ripeness; it is about what the forecast says for the next four days.
- Hand or machineWhat each brings in, and what each leaves behind.
- The morning pickFruit brought in cold, and why temperature matters at the press.
- Rot and triageSorting on the way in, and the difference between two kinds of rot.
The Freeze
November–January- Waiting for minus eightFruit left hanging into winter, netted and watched, until the temperature holds low enough for long enough.
- What hangs onBunch structure and skin thickness decide what survives to December.
- Pressing frozenThe fruit goes into the press still hard, and most of the water stays behind as ice.
- The night pickPicked in the dark because the temperature will not hold past dawn.
- The year it never cameWarm winters, and the crop left on the wire.