More vines

You're likely to have a run of vine photos since we are in the vineyard every morning at the moment. There's a lot to do. Today Ali ran the Yellow Muncher ahead of me between the rows of vines. It made a huge difference to have all the thistles whacked before strimming. We cleared the ground a great deal faster.

The weather was perfect; sunny, a fair breeze to dry the vines after last night's heavy rainfall and not too hot to work. However tomorrow morning we need NO wind. We'll be in the vineyard by 7am ready to spray the upper terraces - Carignan and Grenache. No wind means we'll wear less of the copper sulphate mixture. It's nice not to come home blue.

The combination of rain and warm weather is perfect for vine problems like moulds. So the spraying is urgent. It'll take two full mornings to do the whole vineyard. Walking to each of 5000 vines on a steep slope has its challenges, so keep your fingers crossed that it all goes well.