Is a heatwave – ‘canicule’ -good for the vines?
Fireball sun rises around 6am over chateau feely vines
With temperatures hitting 38 degrees celsius in the day and barely getting below 23 degrees celsius in the night we are melting. But what about the vines? Isn’t the sun good for vines? After all it is sun that allows them to make sugar and create the magical grapes we turn into wine.
They are remakably resistant. Most of our vegetables and flowers are wilting despite watering. It is just too much. But to protect themselves the vines shut down when it is over 32 its is too hot for them to work normally.
Vines that are farmed organically and even more so biodynamically have deeper roots and can resist drought and heat conditions a little better as a result.
Another fireball sunrise. The clouds disappeared without offering any relief.
Yet another fireball sunrise.
We are up and out working by around 6am with the sunrise and back inside before 11am. Today I hung the washing before 8am and it felt like 28 degrees- I moved slowly like a sloth, trying to avoid overheating. My straw hat smelt like sun exposed bales. I closed the shutters and windows to try to keep the cool air inside. It’s a race against the heat.
Learn more about wine with out Wine school or read Caro’s books Grape Expectations , Saving our Skins and latest book Glass Half Full to learn more about wine and the story of building an organic vineyard.
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Let me know if there are any wine, wine pairing or organic farming topics you would like to see blog posts on. I will post on the animals at chateau feely in a few days.
