Winter was fairly mild but long, rainy, gloomy and grey… until April! The month of May was dry. The vines had received plenty of water and grew vigorously. So, when the Mistral blew hard in late May, it caused enormous damage, snapping lots of canes. But we forgave it because, all in all, “Doctor Mistral” does us more good than harm!
Winter was cold, beginning in December and continuing in January with snow (about 30 cm), wind (snow drifts) and cold (down to -10°C). We were cut off for three days – though we should point out we don’t have any snow-clearing equipment!
Winter 2011 was “normal”, with no excesses. Before we began pruning we took care of our old vines: straightening them, cutting off dead branches, replanting a post at the foot of each vine to consolidate them for when the plough – and especially the under-vine weeder – go past in spring.
Autumn 2011 was very mild, so we were able to clean the vines up before winter. We “clawed” the soil to let the cold in and do its cleaning work, and broke it up. January was also very mild, and we made good progress with pruning.
Autumn 2012 was devoted to our old vines, which had suffered the most in the severe cold of February. Many vines had frozen; we pulled up the dead ones and tried to rescue the survivors with a shoot growing from the trunk.
Recent Comments