To start again or start a fresh

That is the question I am asking myself.

Vintage 20 10

It all started well, we got the whites off and some pinot noir.... that's where the good news ends. Mother Nature gave us a lovely bit of rain at Christmas. That rain dispersed mildew spores over the grapes. That was ok, until we also had rain in February. This allowed the spores to take hold in the bunches and cause rot to begin. We therefore needed to get the grapes off as soon as possible. However, more rain in March meant the sugar levels - and hence ripeness - dropped and we also couldn't get the harvester into the vineyard to get the grapes off... Now the vines are so stressed they are dropping their leaves, hence they wont produce any more sugar and we wont get the grapes any riper.

Also the rain has meant we cant get the bottling truck into the winery, so haven't been able to bottle our wines. This is also stressful as we don't have a 2006 red - wasn't up to scratch so Dad had the wine makers trip it down the drain, we now make them on site so hopefully this wont happen again, anyway we need to bottle the 2007. Normally we like the reds to be in bottle for 2-3 years. At the rate I am currently selling the wine, the 2007 will only have 6 months in bottle... I think I need to take a holiday and let sales slow down for 6 months of so....

We also look like we have lost 60-75% of the grape that goes into the red and rose.... bugger. Hopefully we can still get some of it off. No more rain, please!

My house is feeling a little like a hotel at the moment, I have had 4 strange guys staying with me over the last few weeks. They are the harvester drivers and tend to sleep during the day. Its all a little odd living with strangers. Especially when one decided he didn't like the way I had things set up and decided to change it around when I was in Melbourne!

Vintage has been an exhausting time for me, but not in the normal way. As Dec/Jan is a quiet time for sales - sommeliers are too busy to see me, so it all gets very busy in Feb/March. In the last 2 weeks I have spent 45 hours driving long distances. I don't count anything under 1 hour - of which significant time is spent driving around. I have been to Sydney 3 times, Canberra twice and Melbourne once. I am so glad to be spending the next week on the vineyard. I need to catch up on my sleep.

On a happy note, the peacocks are still hanging around and I think the peahen is sitting on some eggs, I may have some baby peacocks in two weeks!

Been a while...

Where to start.

At 5:30am this morning? Harvest has started... but I wasn't getting up to work as such, not I was getting up that early as Dad wanted me to take some photos of the machine harvesting while the sun was coming up. He wants to enter the photos in some local "farming" thing. Things were going slowly by the time I got there, one of the tractors blew a tyre on the first run. Using just one tractor really slowed things down.

I got back at about 8am and found the peacocks - who have adopted me, more on that in a second - were being very inquisitive, to the point where one of the boys decided to show off his tail to me. They are still fairly young, so don't have such amazing tail feathers, but it was still pretty cool.

We then played host to some guys from Sydney who opened "Australia's first boutique wine bar in a book store" in Leichhardt. They ordered some wine. Nice.

After that is was fairly boring work....





I also recently caught up with my old professor from Oxford. Nice dinner, pity his credit card wouldn't work. He said to take me to Tetsuyas next time he is in town.... Don't know if Ill take him up on it, wouldn't want to be stuck with the bill from there! He did promise he would get a few more credit cards so it doesn't happen again. It is the second time it has happened... You'd think someone who just sold their company for 6 million quid - well, he didn't own all of it - would be able to cover the cost of a meal!

I have a vague feeling someone else of note has occurred, but right now I can't think of it, so Ill leave it there!

Peacocks later.

Back when it was a little cooler

Boo

Always camera shy, but may have thought if she closes her eyes the camera wouldn't be able to see her!The other trick was to use a telephoto lens.

48 hours is a very long time. This particular 48 hours started with me wondering who we were going to get to look after Boo over Christmas. It ended with me burying her in the garden.

Her cancer spread to her lungs and brain. The first I noticed of its movement was when Boo collapsed on Friday night. She did it again an hour later as I was walking her down to Dad's place. I presumed her hind legs were not able to support her.

The next morning she disappeared on the way to my house. I finally found her under a tree, she was fairly distressed, but after we sat for a while she was able to get up. I called the vet and asked for some painkillers and made an appointment to see the vet on Monday when Xanthe arrived back from Sydney. Realising she didn't have much time left I decided she should eat like a queen so I bought her some ham, cheese, pate and prawns. Boo loved the pate and ham, but wasn't fussed on the cheese or prawns, I later realised the prawns were a little salty.

Saturday evening was awful. She was distressed and didn't want to sit down. I thought her hind legs couldn't support her so wanted her to lay down.... and every time she collapsed she would have some sort of fit, I thought it was the pain. Finally at 11pm she was so exhausted she did lay down.

I didn't think she would be alive when I woke up, but she was. However the seizures became more frequent. 36 hours after she first collapsed I took her to the vet and she was put down. Deciding where and when she would die was a truly awful experience. Thankfully a neighbour took me to the vet and she and her partner helps me bury Boo. By the time it was all over I was completely exhausted.

First came the smell of the fire, now the smoke has arrived

We have been issued with an emergency fire warning. Dad and Xanthe have gone to fill the tractors with water. I have been told to take Dad's car if I have to leave. I will take Boo and CDs of my photos as well.

Weather conditions are expected to deteriorate throughout the afternoon with strong winds and high temperatures making it difficult for fire fighters to combat this fire.

Wonderful!

In the last week, I had two photos published in the Good Living section of the SMH (unfortunately, but all things considered, not surprisingly, my name wasn't published), attended a dinner for Woman in the Wine Industry - a night of fantastic food, wonderful wine and excellent company and attended a dinner at which Peter Garret spoke - the company was superb but the food and wine were very disappointing, especially considering the restaurant we were at.

Now I am back at the vineyard for two days before heading to Melbourne. Its getting very brown around here. Im still not sure what happened to Spring, one day I was using my electric blanket then two days later the heat hit!

Ill be happy when November is over, it has been exhausting so far.

Mutant Patterson Curse

Was Patterson being vengeful or the recipient of the curse??

Its still 35 degrees at 6pm, my thoughts are traveling in strange directions...