Winter 2026 Vineyard Report

Winter in the Vineyard

We are now deep into winter 2026 and the vineyard is now in its dormant phase. The vines have shed their canopies and are resting ahead of Spring when they will burst to life again.

Pruning

• It’s time of year where we take the opportunity to prune and shape the vines for the new season. Depending on the wood quality (which is influenced partly by management and partly by the seasonal conditions) we prune the vines to create a uniform fruit zone and to manage bud numbers and yield. We want just the right number of buds to give us just the right amount of fruit at harvest. Late in autumn we sample the different varieties and dissect the buds to get a glimpse of how many bunches are in each bud. This guides our decision making on bud numbers and helps with planning for the next season.

• Some of our vineyards are pre-pruned with a machine and then tidied up with a hand crew to get those bud numbers and vine shape just right. Others are given a more detailed and bespoke hand prune. This is generally only where we need to refresh the vines, such as where we might be retrellising them or where the variety just needs bit of extra love and care – I’m looking at you Semillon!

Retrellising

• Last winter we commenced a reworking project on our winery block of Semillon. After 30+ years it was time to refresh the vines and the trellis. Careful hand pruning saw the vines ready to have new trellis installed around them. We installed new generation steel vineyard posts which are effective as a trellis and easy for us to recycle should they break or are damaged. The old trellis – a mix of steel star pickets and treated timber – were removed, with the steel posts and wire recycled; the good wooden posts being reused and broken posts being stored for future disposal. (The industry has a reuse/recycling project underway and we are waiting to take advantage of this once it’s active). We are thrilled with how good the vines and trellis look and they have a long future ahead.

Vineyard Floor

• As harvest ended some lovely rain fell and refilled our parched soils. On the back of this we decided to plant covercrops across a number of our vineyards, with some rows being planted with clovers, medics, ryes and fescues, and other being planted with a brassica (radish) type blends to support our insect populations. Some rows were left unsown but with a seed bank of these species from previous seasons.

• Sadly, just after the covercrops emerged the rains dried up and the crops limped along on the morning dew, barely surviving. Thankfully the weather pattern changed, and they are now thriving, with luscious growth now present. The flowers are just starting to emerge, and you will see the small white, pink and yellow flowers over the coming months. Pleasingly there are also good aphid populations present on some brassicas – these are winter food for our favourite vineyard beneficial – ladybugs, before there is a wider array of food for them in spring. We have spotted a few ladybirds and hoverflies despite the cooler weather. The large taproot of the radishes are fantastic for breaking up hard pans in the soil and getting organic matter to depth to improve soil structure.