Pruning Starts Tomorrow

It feels like just 10 minutes ago we drove the last of our Cabernet down the winding metal road to the Man O' War winery and signaled the end of vintage 2009 for the vineyard staff. A challenging yet exciting vintage ended as it always does, a big sense of relief combined uncomfortably with an empty hollow feeling hat it was all over for another year. All that you have worked for for the last 12 months was now over and out of your hands; adopted by the winery until such time they feel it right to give your babies back in a glass.

After a time of rest, reflection and a post mortem of what we've just been through, it's time to swap the T-shirts for swandries, the baseball caps for beanies, the picking snips for loppers, the lager for stout, the Rose for Cabernet and the Bar B for the crock pot and look forward to the start of vintage 2010, pruning.

Waiheke Island doesn't normally experience very cold winters but a couple of weeks ago a large anticyclone and southerly airflow saw temperatures plummet on the island leading to series of spectacular frosts (well, spectacular for Waiheke) and crisp clear days.

We welcome any cold chilling for the vines to help put them to rest properly, in fact, it would be nice if it snowed a couple of times a year to also suppress overwintering insects and disease but beggars can't be choosers. For now we'll take what we can get.

Pruning is a great time of year, a chance to make some changes, manipulate the vines into various forms to achieve goals and transform the vineyards back to a manageable state in readiness for bud burst in early September.

I'll let you know how we're getting on and be sure to add some images of our Ethiopian friends who sometimes resemble the marshmallow guy in Ghostbuster's, often needing to wear their entire winter wardrobe to stay warm.

Until then....from the Man O' War team at HQ

Cheers.