Sorry about the long gap since my last. Erm, well, better fess up. Actually I deleted the website: software, data, Dropbox back-up and all, accidentally from my laptop. Classically, I last backed up to my external disk last August (But, boy, was I pleased to find THAT!). Taken me a while to build it all back from the actual web from where it was last Aug. Yep, red-faced!

So here’s a bit of a catch-up. We duly tasted tank samples of the wines up at Steve’s just after my last post. SO PLEASED! The wines from 2014, the “Vintage of Dreams”, seem to be fulfilling their brilliant season’s promise. The Kernling (being poured above) was still unfiltered so harder to taste, but it’s fully dry and as usual, restrained at this stage but promising well. Steve used a Champagne yeast to make sure of the full ferment - the Kernling’s always a bit tricky to finish. The Madeleine (in the other flask) is already intense and well-balanced. We decided on a blend of 15% of Kernling, 85% Madeleine for our one barrique’s-worth of Barrel Matured. The Madeleine works well with the oak but it’ll have a bit of extra complexity this time. Here is  our barrique being got ready when we were up at the winery. By now the wine’s been 4 weeks in it and at the end of March all the wines will be bottled. One of our rainy-day jobs is getting the wine-store organised and brushed down for their homecoming.

Steve, the winemaker, asked us if we wanted to change to screwtops. Hesitated a bit and asked our Facebook followers, who were divided but generally in favour. So it took us a while to decide. Since we upgraded to the best corks Steve can get, we’ve had only a handful of corked bottles (though we do realise that even one is one too many. If you’re unlucky enough to find one, of course we’ll replace it, no question). And in the end we decided to stick with these corks. The cork works well for maturation which is important, especially for our Kernling which, with its Riesling parentage, develops over 4-6 years. We feel we’re doing our little bit to support the, ancient, sustainable, cork-oak-and-blackfooted-pig ecology in Portugal and Spain. And we like the pop.

Today I will finish pruning the  lower Madeleine Angevine block. Been a long old job but an easy, rather sunny, winter and it’s now all properly sorted out into double guyot, with a lot of young vines in the gaps. We hope those will grow up to the wire this year and start to fruit next. Still about half the old stumps to saw out. Some I chainsawed earlier pictured above  right in the wheelbarrow, note the paint to seal the wounds. Yes, just paint. Wickes bathroom acrylic. Still a lot of young vines to stake, and then it’s on to my Kernling block, the lower, high-pruned one. Iain’s about 1/3 through his, the upper block (above, right).

First post-bashing of the year last Saturday when son Ned and daughter-in-law Paula, on a flying visit, replaced a rather prominent end-post for us by hand, ready for the visitor-season to start. Still too squelchy to get the tractor and its mechanical post-basher into the field. Here’s Paula unscrewing the brass row number from the broken post. and me and Ned sorting out the wire anchorage. Thanks guys. 

Our daughter Liz’s injured mare is back on song. We put her out on a restricted patch of the vineyard paddock, hoping it would discourage any shenanigans as she convalesced (below). But pretty soon she showed us that she was better. With the grazing getting short and the wind under her tail she galloped two circuits of the acre paddock, flying across that four-foot-six electric tape fence twice on each circuit. We were heart-in-mouth, but she was fine. Now she’s back in the big field and Liz riding her gently again. Phew!