October 17th, 2017
After a pretty cold and wet winter, the warm weather is back.
We have recently returned from a three week sojourn in the Ribeira Sacra region in Galicia, North West Spain where many great wines were "tested"! Ribeira Sacra is a truly spectacular part of Spain where vineyards are grown on the terraced, steep slopes of the Sil and Miño rivers. The king of red grapes here is Mencia, where Godello and some Albariño are the predominant white varieties.
Lots of great food including Galician octopus (Pulpo) and Baby squid (Chiparones) was eaten along with delicious organic pork (Cerdo) and freshly baked bread all washed down with local wine was a great experience.
It was exciting to get back to Three Dams the day after we got back to see the spring awakening for another year. All the fruit trees in full bloom, the vineyard in budburst and that smell of Spring in the air. The automatic garden reticulation was activated before we went away resulting in an abundance of lettuces, silverbeet, garlic, snow peas, kale and broad beans.
Espaliered Apple Tree
The mulch I laid in the vineyard over Winter has really helped keep the weeds down and the soil moist. Judging by the amount of flowers on the vines this year, we're in for a bumper crop of fruit for our first vintage at Three Dams Estate. Just need to keep the Powdery Mildew and birds at bay!
For now though, it's the perfect weather for entertaining on the deck and watching the Spring sunsets.
