Hayes Family Wines - Managing Our Organic Estate Vineyard
Managing an Organic Vineyard in Spring requires hard manual work!
Spring in our Organic Vineyard
With the vines pruned and growth well underway in the Shiraz and Grenache blocks (with the Mataro soon to follow), our attention turns to giving the vineyard the best chance at a good quality and quantity crop for Vintage 2022.
For us, our vineyard naturally crops low, typically around 1 tonne per acre but sometimes significantly less (in 2020 we were around 200kgs per acre). Quality is consistently high with very little work required to thin out bunches and reduce vine growth. However, what we do need to do is reduce the competition for water. In all but the wettest years, think 2017, 2011, 1974, competition from weeds and native and introduced grasses compete with the vines for surface moisture. This can inhibit vine growth and ultimately the crop.
Under traditional farming, this is managed through either the introduction of a bare earth policy (where tillage is deployed to remove all weeds) or the application of synthetic herbicides, or both. We are Certified for both Organic and Sustainability, and as such, do not use synthetic herbicides. Instead, we try to retain grass cover to reduce heat and ultimately increase carbon in the soil.
Our solution to water for the vines? Mow the grass pretty much as you would do at home. Use the whipper snipper to keep the grass low under the vines. And pray for some more rain!
The Months Ahead
With the grasses now under control, the vines will happily grow with limited competition for the time being. The natural grasses will now slowly die off when summer approaches but the introduced grasses will remain a challenge for our vines, particularly the young ones. With more rain forecast and the ongoing threat of hail you never quite know what the future will hold. Another haircut may be in order but only time will tell.