THE wine grape harvest is continuing with red varieties ripening slowly.
Winemakers are keen to see that maximum sugar levels in the fruit are achieved before fruit is harvested to best extract the desired amount of colour and flavour through the fermentation process. Growers are pulling their hair out, (those that still have some) and are wanting to harvest, knowing that each rain event causes damage to the ripening fruit.
We are over halfway through our harvest and will finish the whites this week and have five red varieties yet to fully ripen.
Yields so far have been good and kind weather for the next month would be ideal to allow the remaining varieties to reach maturity and minimise the risk of spoilage.
We again have had literally a zoo in the vineyard this season, so far we’ve observed trespassing wallabies, roos, pigs, goats and anyone wanting a finger-licking feed we have available a couple of peacocks that have been loose in the vineyard eating grapes for the last three months.
This seasons orb spiders are now fully grown and are pretty big, last week while maturity testing in the vines, one did the Spider-man thing and put an arm out, shot a web directly at my hat and whoosh away went my hat. If wondering the actual size of this orb, all I can say is that the last time I spotted my hat it looked to be a pretty tight fit on the spiders head.
