gapes and leaves
clouds

From now on the weather is very critical to the quality of the coming vintage

vedge-tailed eagle
clouds clouds clouds
  clouds clouds
wilting vine shoot thermometer at 46 degr 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.

wilting canopy wilting canopy
echidnas don't mind the heatechidna

We are walking endlessly the irrigation lines, checking for blocked dripper outlets.

And it would be so nice to sit in the shade...

harehare
......or to take a shower under an irrigation dripper. Yes, yes, another harehare Striated thorn bill ?thornbill
Baby Blue-tongue lizardbluetongue lizard   Garden wolf spider, (Lycosa godeffroyi)garden wolf spider
But it may also be cold and wet and windy.. water drop on vine leaf  
drizzle in the vineyard wet vine canopy Even hares are coldhare in drizzle
everything soggy and dripping with water spider net shoot tip with spider net
water drops on vine shoot

downy mildew on the loose,
grey mould on the rampage..

water drops on vine shoot
downy mildewdowny mildew A very wet native yellow flower wasp ( Radumeris tasmaniensis)yellow flower wasp 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, 1495Arnoldus de Villa Nova: "Speculum medicinae", Leipzig, 1495   Petrus de Crescentijs, ca. 1495Petrus de Crescentijs, ca. 1495
But it may also be a good year... vineyard shade under the vines
One of the many damselflies: Blue RingtailĀ Austrolestes annulosusblue ringtail damselfly 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)garden orb-weaver spider
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)leaf-curling spider Christmas or Jewel spider (Austracantha minax)Jewel spider
veraison green grapes

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.
Uneven ripeness produces unbalanced wines with overripe and under-ripe flavours mixed.

bunch thinning
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