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Jed’s leaving has come at an ideal time in many ways. Since doing
the harvest in New Zealand’s Marlborough region this year, Sam has
been itching to get his hands on more winemaking and will now become
Camel Valley’s winemaker. He’s very excited at the idea and has lots
of plans and procedures underway to make things go as smoothly as
possible, although the prospect of working twelve hours a day, seven
days a week for six or seven weeks is quite daunting.
This year will see our biggest crop ever, and the vines are almost
groaning under the weight of the grapes. The challenge is to keep
them on the vines in perfect condition to ripen. We have put up
electric fencing to keep out badgers, foxes and our dog, and have
removed the leaves around the grapes by hand to give the grapes as
much sunlight and air circulation as possible to keep disease at
bay. We have also started netting to keep the birds off, and will
start picking our earliest variety mid September. These jobs take a
lot of time, but are so much more worthwhile when you have a massive
crop. It will be difficult for the vines to ripen so many grapes and
the wood for next year, so we are hoping for an Indian Summer, but
then, who isn’t?
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