Rain, jokes and snails with feet 22 August 2005

Landsman deals with late winter in the vineyard

Non-stop rainy days for weeks. The soil is drenched and no tractor can move in the vineyards. Pruning must wait for clear days as pruning in the rain causes die-back of vines. Any vines that have a history of budding over a long period rather than all at the same time must be sprayed with Dormex and after Dormex spray we should ideally have one to three clear warm days. Not possible at this stage in my valley.

Snails are starting to move, and the farm’s first ten buds on the farm have shown signs of green. The first variety to break on this farm is viognier and the mountain blocks of sauvignon blanc. These blocks have had their weed control (only done once a year) and control during dormancy of the dreaded witluis or mealy bug. We discovered a snail this morning with as many feet as a songololo [centipede] – but these feet look like the feet of a gecko - with little suckers on them! Bok (a disease monitor) now calls it the Patatland Slak. Hope I have not bred a new breed of snails here!

For me, lots of rain always spells the beginning of a good season - especially in the dryland (unirrigated) areas. As long as the rain stops before budding, or at least before flowering. Rain during flowering can cause bad set of the bunches and lots of downy mildew.

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We had our eyes tested yesterday, and the resulting jokes of what everybody can now see were amazing. I always teach the workers (as Eben Archer taught me) that the canopy of the vineyard must be thin enough for someone to see whether the person on the other side of the row is a man or a woman when naked. An old guy asked me once if the naked  person he needs to identify as man/woman will be an old woman or a young woman. Many jokes in the vineyard.

Rainy days are days for burning wood, training and cleaning up. All the spray carts have been serviced and tested, the spray operators have had their umpteenth schooling on how to operate the spray machine and how to handle chemicals. Its amazing how vineyard managers have to battle to get institutions to do training. I have made noises about this for so many years. Is the success of a winefarm not also dependant on the quality of training of the vineyard workers?

The disease monitors are busy with their training (inhouse) and during the rainy days we all get together and discuss the principles of canopy management, weed control, green harvest, etc.

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We gave the vineyard workers a tasting of the wines they produced last year at our farm. The flavours they picked were – sauvignon blanc: grass, kiwi-fruit, fynbos; merlot: chocolate, braambessies (a wild berry); cabernet: ‘hy byt my kiewe’ (implying that the tannins are tough)!