A Cold, Wet Start to the Season and a Dry, Hot Summer

Every year is different!

It was a bad start to the season this year with very stormy weather during flowering time, which had us worried here at White Rock Vineyard. Fortunately though, the cold delayed the flowering, so we escaped it! There is a lot of hen and chicken (which means small berries in the bunches that are at different ripening stages) in the rest of Tasmania where it is warmer. They started flowering earlier so suffered the storms – we were lucky again!

More good news – there is no disease pressure this year, which can easily occur, and the vineyard is looking very healthy. We’re enjoying the beautiful summer weather here in Tassie, but it means it is very dry so the irrigation has been working overtime. The 1mm of rain that fell in early February didn’t do much good, unfortunately.

Bring on the 2014 harvest!