To say it's been a baptism of fire would be an understatement! Having completed four vintages at Principia I thought I knew what we were in for taking on our own vineyard...boy we were wrong! Our first job was to prune the vines back to promote strong growth with an eye to the following few growing season, the vines were quite 'bully'(large and oversized) making them less than ideal to tie down for the forthcoming season. Tough decision were made and we pruned back hard in the hope it would be more beneficial for the years to come. Spring brought beautiful flowering and solid growth in the vineyard, however, the wild wind storm that hit Melbourne in late October caused issues with flowering. The strong winds knocked off flower caps causing inconsistent fruit set, also known as hen & chicken, the most common cause is cold, windy and wet weather during the key stage of the vines flowering, during the growth cycle. The summer months have brought warm and consistent weather that has aided in long ripening days to the vines...from here we have 5-6 weeks to see what mother nature gives us before the fun in the winery begins...see you on the other side of vintage!!
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