This is the tidiest and most peaceful that you will see our grape reception for the next couple of weeks. Tomorrow we will start to distribute the grey baskets that you see neatly stacked here, in anticipation of the picking which is now iminent.Our lab is full of grape samples and the results are looking fairly promising, so the next step is to consider the weather.
After about six weeks of dry weather we actually have a little rain today, and it is possible that we will have more tomorrow (and possibly on Saturday too). Thankfully this is mostly light rain and should not really have any adverse effect on the fruit, indeed it might almost be welcome. Following such a long, dry period the grapes have become a little dusty, and can also still have small traces of Bordeaux mixture (an innocuous treatment that was last used more than a month ago). A light shower of rain now will hopefully yield slightly cleaner fruit!
The plan is to watch what happens in the next 48 hours, and then to allow one completely dry day before the 'off'. So if the forecast is correct, this could mean that we start on Monday 21st...... or maybe not - the weather Gods will decide.
good luck with the harvest, hopefully you will be keeping us up to date along the way - i have a little albarino planted here in new zealand and would certainly like to know the detailed ins and outs of the whole process
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