Pruning Update

Grapes looking very tidy, 3 vines at top of Sangiovese row have black spots on leaves, Duncan has taken photos.  Otherwise looking good;

2013 Wines

I tasted the wines from last years harvest today.  All 3 are looking fine, clear, with good clean flavours and aroma.

Summer Pruning

Omi, Isis and I arrived at Orchidea on the 8th May, what a great time of the year to be in Le Marche.  We had 23 degrees and sunshine for 3 or 4 days with signs of summer starting all around.  No signs of fireflies yet though!

The grapes have started growing with plentiful shoots of between 3 to 9 inches growth already, I spent about 4 hours taking out a large number of shoots, and leaving around 6 shoots only evenly placed on each cordon.

On the vines that have not yet converted to Guyot, I tried where possible to make sure I left a few shoots near the crowns that can be converted into next years canes.

The vines have a great deal less shoots than previous years, although almost all shoots are already showing signs of forming grape clusters.  I am excited about our new pruning methods....I can see that we will probably get less yield, but that the grapes should be more consistent and healthy.