Pruning is on the go...slowly...

Well, I started pruning the top Pinot block last week, and I have to admit it has been very slow going. Now four months out from surgery, my shoulder can only take so much of the repetitive (and jarring) snipping. I am managing about a row to a row and a half, before I have to stop and take a break.

Luckily, it's cold enough to make the coffee breaks all the more enjoyable!

Sombre signs for 2011

Indicators around Northern Tasmania are pointing to a rough end to the 2011 vintage. Many producers are facing yield losses and the possibility of not picking at all! The cool season has pushed back ripening into dangerous waters, as canopies begin to senesce and leaves fall. Add to that cooler temperatures and the ever present threat of further rain.

Looking in the winery, there are numbers of producers having to sacrifice ideal sugar levels to secure a crop. Some are hoping that berry shrivel will help them get to the necessary level of sugar to make a wine. Others still have decided that they will achieve neither the sugar level or the quality of fruit to warrant harvesting their crop.

A hard year for all, it seems....

Recovery Mode...

I am writing this with only my left hand, and it is sooo frustrating...

Surgery is done, and my right wing is clipped and tucked in a sling for at least the next month. All the 2011 fruit is now on the ground...all those little bunches of small berries. We tried a few of the riper berries as we snipped, and they had a good flavour.

Shame they all had to go on the ground.

A very sad decision.

It was with heavy hearts, a lot of thought and talks today that Mel and I decided to pull the pin on vintage 2011. This week I will start cutting the bunches off our vines and drop them.

Its been a hard season already, due to the very cold and wet conditions Australia is experiencing. I think we can all attest to that. What it means for the vines is that they are struggling to ripen fruit, and it has become a race to get them to a useable maturity before we run out of growing season. It was looking tight until I got some hard news this morning.

I took a good spill at the start of the month and dislocated my shoulder (something I have dealt with for nearly two decades now), however this time round, I shattered my shoulder socket - the socket has broken open. The only way to rectify it is with open surgery, to rebreak it and then screw the bones back together correctly.

The end effect is 6 weeks of immobility and then physio...no driving tractors, no vineyard maintenance, nothing. I am out of commission for the rest of this season.

So the best course is to give the vines the balance of this season to put on condition.

'Not happy Jan!'