Cardan – April 18/19. Good fruit requires healthy vines – good news, we have superb vines!

More beautiful sunshine in Cardan. At the moment it is like summer here and the vines are now growing very quickly. Pascale and I have together inspected every row of the Hourcat Sud block. The main stems that she retained from the pruning have now been tied horizontally to the trellis and the young green shoots are bursting vertically from the old wood. Each bud is changing into a new individual green shoot and as it grows, the tiny future grape bunches are appearing. When the risk of any frost has finally passed, Pascale will carefully select the most promising stems to maintain through the growing season that will give us the best quality and right quantity of fruit in September. Quality always comes before quantity. The photos of the young shoots and baby grape bunches are magnificent.

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In the meantime, excess grass around the base of each vine is being cut back with the new brush cutter. There is now a lot more clover growing as the impact of years of herbicide spraying recedes. Cutting is required to maintain sufficient ground cover (preventing moisture loss) but keeping the grass low enough to allow water and air in. With the new brush cutter the lower (one third) section of Hourcat Sud was trimmed in about one hour. A good return on our investment.