How is it?
Jan 26th 2016. Nets are being placed over the vines.
Brix reading 8 degrees. Have sprayed on Ecocarb. This effects the Ph level, by doing this the black spot stops spreading.

 We store the nets while not in use in Big black plastic bags, in the loft.

 This shot shows off the mesh size

 Looking back up to the house with the nets draped over the vines

 Along the two bottom rows. The first three are Merlot.

I tie the inside rows together with twisty ties. This stops the nets from being blown off in strong winds. It takes a few hours to do all the rows!

 Two more rows to go today. It is very hot today.

 A few bunches of Chambourcin, looking good.

 Looking North west down towards the sea

Looking North east towards the sea. Tide is coming in.

Last days of 2013 in the Matakohe vineyard

How is it?

Have done a bit of work lately on the vineyard.
Bought some wire and finished off the last three rows.
All good now.

Top wire is 10G low tensile wire. Soft as.
Rounded the top or each post, ready for the bird netting
Have sprayed on three lots of Boron during flowering and fruit
setting.

Seems to have worked, as the bunch sets in the past have been more like
hen and chicken (only one or two large and  few small). In some
cases no set per bunch, with all fruit drying up and falling off. Known as colocure.

So am really pleased. You can see the difference!

Now all I need to do is keep the birds off the grapes as they ripen.
Need to invest in white knitted bird netting.
Cost of which will be $1300. Still after all the hard work watching
the birds get a belly full is a little disheartening.
Started to leaf thin around the fruit.

This can be back breaking work.
Have decided to remove all of the plucked leafs and wheelbarrow them
off site. As I have have some blackspot on many of the lower leafs this year.
So bought some EcoCarb and after spraying this on it seems to have stopped
the spread of the blackspot in it's tracks.

Looking good I think. Grapes in lag phase so about 60 - 65 days to picking. Brix 4.2 degrees. 25th December 2013.
Cheers

Merlot Grape Jelly

How is it?

Another rainy day in the winterless up north.

Picked 2 buckets of grapes when taking the nets off the Merlot.

Have decided to try my hand at making Merlot Grape Jelly!

Ended up with five and a half jars of jelly.

Made a few videos of the process.

The proof of a good Merlot Grape Jelly is in the tasting on toast. Can't wait.

Two days until Christmass

Merlot have set OK, not over heavy but it's the quality that counts for making a great wine, I'm told.

Have been along each row and leaf plucked the lower leaves. Most seemed to be changing colour, sort of going light to a red tinge, almost as if nature was indicating which ones to pluck, strange that. Oh and their stems seemed to be stiff, so that they snapped off cleanly.

These Merlot a registered clone 347 are on 420A rootstock. This makes them sensitive to Potassium deficiency. Also this root stock is quite shallow rooting, this means that budding happens early as the top layer of soil warms first. Low vigor of growth so the foliage is light. Must put some ash ffrom the fireplace around them next year.

Some bunches are nice and the fruit is starting to swell. Oh if they all looked like this. One day, one day.

Those sun flowers are looking really the part. It's true they follow the sun through the day.













How is it?

Hot and humid as up north at the moment, 29.6 C temp. Have started to water the vines with drippers, should have done this during the flowering stage as well, this helps with the set if the vines aren't stressed!

Will have to do another copper spray soon.

Almost like the day of the triffids

Have lowered the height of the post to shoulder height. The netting was too tight and Moira had troubles reaching the top. Rounded the tops with a spokeshave as the netting catches if too rough. Top wire then runs over the top and is fastened to the post with two staples.

Looking south now back up to the house, in the afternoon, this sunflower seems more content with the sea view.

15th October Merlot Vines

Merlot vines at Matakohe Wines.

Close up of newly forming grapes.

Looking good so far!

Starting to shoot up the wires. Cleared long grass away from vines last week.

Moira inspecting the future crop.

Note Sunflowers planted by the posts.

Will be interesting to see what these look like later in the season.

Prune well to get the shaped vines.

Good set prior to flowering. Have sprayed with copper 4 times so far this year. At 2 weekly intervals.

Strong south easterly winds this week have wind burnt many of the vine leafs, but bunches of grapes appear to be untouched, I hope.

Harvest 2009

Harvest time 2009

Merlot grapes at Matakohe Vineyard.

Merlot vines that show good bunch spread

Pheasant damage on the lower bunches

The chief picker is on the job. Go hard.

Hard not to smile at this time

Chrushing the fruit with a masher