Spring has Sprung..

After a relatively mild winter, Spring has sprung! In fact more of a leap, jump or catapult than a mere spring. At this point, growth is already advanced by about three weeks. Our Sipon vines would normally look like this in early May....

The shoots are so early that there's still of course a danger of frost. To counter this, many producers with lower-lying vineyards are holding off on tying down the canes so that the shoots are kept as high away from the ground as possible.

Over in the new Blaufrankisch vineyard, the young vines have also - relatively speaking - raced ahead....

Only problem is all the other growth around the young vines.....!

Time to think about a bit of hoeing.....