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From now on the weather is very critical to the quality of the coming vintage |
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It may be very hot, dry and windy, |
the vines wilting and the grapes shrivelling. This will produce flabby wines with cooked, stewed, raisiny flavours, particularly awful in Pinot noir. |
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echidnas don't mind the heat![]() |
We are walking endlessly the irrigation lines, checking for blocked dripper outlets. And it would be so nice to sit in the shade... |
hare![]() |
......or to take a shower under an irrigation dripper. | Yes, yes, another hare![]() |
Striated thorn bill ?![]() |
Baby Blue-tongue lizard![]() |
Garden wolf spider, (Lycosa godeffroyi)![]() |
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But it may also be cold and wet and windy.. | ![]() |
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Even hares are cold![]() |
everything soggy and dripping with water | ![]() |
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downy mildew on the loose, |
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downy mildew![]() |
A very wet native yellow flower wasp ( Radumeris tasmaniensis)![]() |
These wines will be under-ripe, with the flavour of green fruit, with high acid, harsh, puckering tannins, or with mouldy characters. |
From Arnoldus de Villa Nova: "Speculum medicinae", Leipzig, 1495![]() |
Petrus de Crescentijs, ca. 1495![]() |
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But it may also be a good year... | ![]() |
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One of the many damselflies: Blue RingtailĀ Austrolestes annulosus![]() |
not too hot and not too dry, and not too cold and not too wet, and no hail and no bush fires... |
Garden orb weaver (Eriophora transmarina)![]() |
with the vines healthy, the hares growing fat, the spiders happy, the echidnas pocking around, and the grapes slowly turning colour from green to red. | Leaf-curling spider (Phonognatha graeffei)![]() |
Christmas or Jewel spider (Austracantha minax)![]() |
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At this stage, veraison, we again try to fine-tune quality. We cut out grapes growing on watershoots,or on weak canes, as they are always slower to ripen than the others. |
© Sarsfield Estate | ![]() |