User Profile

Colin Free

Farmers’ salty teardrops as snails are en route for Paris

MACHINE pruning is ongoing – with still a fair way to go. And, at the same time, trying to do a tidy job to lessen the inevitable and expensive hand clean up job, is important. The annual wine grape crush figures for last year are also out (you can...

20 Jul 2024

Wine Grapes

Snails racing as big chill exposes job ahead

It’s pruning time in the vineyard, and the leaves have gone, exposing a view of the job ahead. Vines will be machine pruned and given a tidy up by hand later on. There are also plenty of industry meetings on currently – with bugger all good news...

23 Jun 2024

Wine Grapes

All’s quiet, but sadly it might get even quieter

WE have just had 11 marvellous millimetres of rain from the recent event – and it was most welcome. While all our grapevines are just about dormant, they will still require wet roots to keep them happy until we get...

20 May 2024

North West Farmer

Good news amid export gloom

THE wine grape harvest has been fast and furious, and February was flat out, with the white varieties coming in with a rush – and with pleasing yields and high quality. The earlier rains had caused issues, as they do, but also assisted in...

16 Mar 2024

Wine Grapes

Weather, low prices add pressure

VINES are looking pretty good generally, but once again we are also having another season with a lot of disease pressure – the best you can say about the end of 2023 and the start of another year is the nitrogen which...

20 Jan 2024

Wine Grapes

Pushing into market headwinds

THE wine job is in a bit of a mess right now – and somehow the industry needs to remove at least 20 per cent of current plantings to try and fix it. And those vines have to be gone in a relatively short period of time. With the lack of...

16 Dec 2023

Opinion

Replacing red with white to help sales

SPRING has arrived but the temperature has been pretty variable. The vines are kicking along and as we near flowering some consistent warm weather would be great to aid a good fruit set. Scale have been a problem in the past few years in the vines...

23 Oct 2023

North West Farmer

Snails set the pace

The wine grape harvest concluded a couple of weeks ago – finally – with all the fruit thankfully meeting the required sugar levels. There was a bit of botrytis in the last patches to be picked, which led to some fruit shaking off in front of the...

18 May 2023

North West Farmer

Harvest moves to later varieties

THE possibly-not-happening, never-starting and now never-finishing grape harvest is still with us. The later varieties are struggling to ripen due to the cool weather, short days and the bloody rain events that are diluting the sugar in...

20 Apr 2023

Opinion

Crazy season’s new challenge

THE wine grape harvest is well underway, and the dry weather has been ideal. But if we are to safely get the reds off as well, we still need a lot more warm weather during the next month to ensure they get the finish required to see those varieties...

18 Mar 2023

Wine Grapes

Hoping both rain and birds stay away

FOLLOWING a testing growing season – with extreme disease pressure, followed by a nasty hail storm last month – we are at last nearing harvest for the early varieties. Although it follows this will see a much later...

24 Feb 2023

North West Farmer

On watch for downy mildew

Grapevine columnIt’s simply a crazy season, enormous disease pressure, regular heavy downpours and a high level of frustration. Downy mildew’s goal is to defoliate the vine’s foliage and disintegrate the bunches in the process, and this year...

25 Nov 2022