By Ben Burridge Viticultural Technician, Wither Hills 2014 has been a great vintage to finish the Organic Focus Vineyard project in Marlborough. A warm season with well-timed rain events helped to develop the lush canopies and ripen the bountiful crops. These warm and humid conditions meant however that powdery mildew was witnessed on an unprecedented […]
By Ben Burridge Viticultural Technician, Wither Hills With the grapes now softening and changing colour, it is time to reflect on what has been occurring in the vineyard over the last month. The long dry summer last season combined with good conditions during flowering has encouraged what is likely to be an early and bountiful […]
By Ben Burridge Viticultural Technician, Wither Hills With such a warm spring in Marlborough thus far, canopies in all the focus vineyard blocks have been growing rapidly. Budburst and flowering are significantly earlier than last year (1-2 weeks), and the vineyard workers have been doing well to keep up with the job requirements of a […]
By Ben Burridge Viticultural Technician, Wither Hills Jacqueline Maclaurin, who managed the Organic Focus Vineyard for the last two years at Wither Hills, has moved on to manage Wither Hills’ Rarangi Vineyard. Thanks to Jacqueline for all her hard work, and welcome to Ben, who will be steering the vineyard through the final season of […]
The vineyard is looking autumnal… A cover crop of lupins and oats has been sown in alternate rows in the organic blocks. One of the goals is to increase nitrogen levels. Yeast available nitrogen (YAN) was low in the organic Pinot Noir this year.
By Jacqueline Maclaurin Viticultural Technician, Wither Hills Well what a season… as we hold our breath waiting for the endless summer to end, we anticipate the harvest of twenty thirteen. The blocks are looking fantastic – with the end of February came the end of a busy few months – final leaf plucking, colour thinning […]
By Jacqueline Maclaurin Viticultural Technician, Wither Hills The Marlborough summer seems to have arrived, with typical long hot days, interspersed with the odd day of rain to calm the dust. With the windy sunny days we have not yet seen any high disease pressure incidents in the blocks, although we have been running a tight […]
By Jacqueline Maclaurin Viticultural Technician, Wither Hills Sunshine greeted us the middle of November and the temperatures started rising in time for the first field day of the season, a field day focusing on soil. Tim Jenkins, a soil scientist and microbiologist with a wide-ranging background in sustainable agriculture, talked on the techniques used to monitor […]
By Jacqueline Maclaurin Viticultural Technician, Wither Hills As the season warms up so too does the shoot, weed and grass growth. The buckwheat and Phacelia are showing signs of growth. This year we sowed at a rate of 35 kilograms per hectare of buckwheat and 3 kilograms per hectare of Phacelia. This season we are […]
By Jacqueline Maclaurin Viticultural Technician, Wither Hills Buds are bursting and ground work is being started. After a slightly slow start to the season, growth is starting to appear and the first cover spray will be applied shortly. The Pinot Noir blocks have been ripped using a Braun para plough in the centre of the […]
