Stef’s been doing a god job posting up pictures this year as we’ve redone the home ‘Haute Tubee’ vineyard. We took out a total of 24 mature plants and replanted 25 new Mourvedre. We also retrained the plants in the backyard, which had the effect of making the yields on those plants this year more like three year old plants.
The net result is we’ll have just about 60-80 pounds of grapes this year instead of the 250-300 we usually get. That’s really not enough to make wine. I could make a small batch, but given that this location is usually ready 3-4 weeks before anything else, I’d have a hard time storing the wine as it fermented and after it finishes. Normally I mix in other small batches as they finish and have enough wine that I can store it in a tank until there is enough to fill a barrel. 60-80 pounds though is just about 5 gallons, and the risk of spoilage would be very high.
There’s also the fact we’d have to drive to the winery every day to do punch downs. Not a big deal when we have other lots going, but awful expensive for 5 gallons.
So it was a hard decision but I’ve decided not to net the Home Vineyard this year. That means the birds will come and take all the grapes. The mockingbirds have already started to clean out clusters. It’s hard to watch, I still want to sprint out side and scare them away, but this year the mockingbirds win.