Flowering is one of the most crucial times in the vineyard, after all, it’s from flowers that we get grapes! We don’t need insects for pollination, the flowers have both male and female parts, so a gentle breeze is enough, but dry sunny days are essential.
Unfortunately for us we had rain, rain and more rain. It rained more than 70% of the time our vines were flowering.
This kind of weather prevents the caps of the flowers from being shed, which in turn prevents fertilisation, and helps to spread disease. The lack of sunshine and photosynthesis also limits the supply of carbohydrates to the inflorescences, further limiting the plant’s ability to produce fruit.
What does this mean? Unsurprisingly, it means pollination and fruit set was poor in places, so the large potential crop that was promised by lots of flowers just a few weeks ago is now quite reduced! It’s difficult to estimate how much has been lost at this stage, but in some places it appears to be up to a third.
On the upside (silver linings are nearly always there to be found), the fruit that remains is more likely to ripen well now that the fruit load is lower. It may have even saved us a job later in the year, as we were considering dropping some fruit to encourage this ripening.
So, in terms of quality, this year could well be great - just so long as this warm weather sticks around: we’re still some way behind where we were last year and we’ll need some above average temperatures to get us back on track. I’ve got everything crossed!
