The last spray has been deployed. Two more laps with the weed-wacker and some crop thinning before game day 😃🌞🍾

Water, so much water. Internode lengths are impressive this year😳

The excessive moisture has instigated the removal of any leaves below the first bunch on each shoot. Caps are falling giving way to flowering and fertilization. Where are the bees?

It’s amazing how a dose of vineyard work under the influence of Spotify, an UE Roll and some sun can motivate another vintage of Backyard Riesling. 14 is running low, 15 just went to bottle and 16 is about to burst. 

A Netflix series created and narrated by Michael Pollan inspired our weekly family cooking session. Today we have our chickens to thank as they supplied us with the 22 eggs needed to make pasta..

We had the pleasure of spending a day in the vineyard with good friends today 😃

The juice is settling and the vines can finally get some rest. The Riesling could have done with two weeks of further ripening but we were losing too many bunches due to weak stems and an increase in bird activities.

As we strolled through the rows today, we found four buckets worth of fruit lying on the ground which can still be used to make our 2015 Backyard Riesling. 

With a week of stable, cool weather forcasted, these botrytis-affected bunces will dry out, increasing the sugar content of the juice.

The 2015 fruit is still hanging in there but we’re getting more than enough rain to warrant splitting and Botrytis. 

In preparation for post-harvest vineyard work, we’ve employed some new workers: