Surveying the fruits of his labor of the last year. |
We picked the first third of the grapes yesterday morning, the area of the vineyard we call the old Chardonnay. It produced almost 3 1/2 tons per acre, a good yield of quality Biodynamic organic grapes! The workers began at dawn and finished late morning, before it got hot. There is always a sigh of relief when the grapes are in, plump and juicy, and delivered to the winery, in this case, Adler Fels.
We spray the grapes with the stinging nettle biodynamic preparation to help consolidate flavors in early August. Of course, they have also received all of the Biodynamic preparations over the year, including the bimonthly spraying of fermented equisetum tea which helped with mildew. Such gratitude we have: to Ramon, who loves the vines and the earth, to the vines, to the pickers who show up early and work hard, to the weather (soul of the earth), and to Rudolf Steiner, whose work with the formative forces 90 years ago has helped heal our vineyard and, we hope, our little part of the earth.