Dear Rentavine.co.uk Club member,

Welcome to the Summer Newsletter of Sedlescombe Organic Vineyard.

In this issue we look at our disappointing summer weather, my trip to Burgundy plus details of what is going on in the vineyard at present , and part 2 of how to go about starting your own vineyard - if the urge takes you.

Lets start with “Grow your own Grapes”. I have been asked to write a chapter on organic Grape growing for a new book to be published by Garden Organic http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/ (formerly H.D.R.A.) Over the course of this year we’ll be serializing this chapter in our newsletters. Part 2 appears at the end of this newsletter!

Still waiting for Summer  !!!
The number of really warm sunny days we have had so far this year, could be counted on the fingers of just one pair of very hard working hands!  Whatever happened to the global warming that was supposed to be going to turn Southern England into the new Bordeaux, that we heard so much about just a few years ago?  The statistics tell us it is still happening - it just does not feel like it right now.

On a more positive note, we can report that at least we have not had the damaging downpours during flowering that we had last year which prevented much of the fruit from setting and caused such heavy crop losses. Thankfully this year the fruit, for the most part, has set - we just need some warm sunshine to develop and ripen it!!

Most varieties have set a moderate crop of fruit bunches with only the Bacchus at our newly converted Spilstead Vineyard in Sedlescombe looking very light on number of bunches, due to poor fruit initation in the buds when they were developing last year during the cool wet July period - To get heavy crops of good quality grapes we actually need TWO good summers - one to create buds with high cropping potential and then a good summer the following year to actually realize that potential.  At present we are looking at the prospect of TWO lousy summers, though this one could still redeem itself - but it will need to get going very soon if it is to do so!

The main project for this year has been the re-planting of some of the dead or dying, unproductive vines at our rented vineyard overlooking Bodiam Castle.  The heavy rains in early June came just right to water them in nicely and the ‘take’ has been almost 100% of the 700 new vines planted. To prevent encroaching weeds, which young vines will not tolerate, we have pegged down a large plastic ‘mat’ around each vine, after removing the surrounding turf. We then put a bamboo cane and a sleeve of netting or polythene around the young vine to protect it from the many rabbits which have made their home in the burrows in the vineyard.

On the marketing side we have been amazed this year with the number of group tour bookings.  We have had a group of 35 surgeons from Rochester hospital and a small group of Chinese businessmen and women who flew in direct from China! Their visit got a mention and a photograph in the Battle Express, our local newspaper! (See attached press cutting).

Watch out for the Saturday edition of the Telegraph soon. They are featuring us in their magazine under the heading “ ECO-WARRIOR”

Bottling
Last week we bottled the 2007 white, rose and red wines - a job which took  just a day and a half , compared to the two weeks it took to bottle the 2006. We bottle about 3,000 bottles a day, so you can see from this statistic alone how the rains decimated the yield last year.

Trip to Burgundy
Last month I was in Chablis where I stopped off on my return to Paris from Beaune in Burgundy. I came here to pick up some vineyard equipment from a company in Beaune which specializes in machines for mowing and hoeing under vine rows. Machines with sensors to weave in and out and around vine trunks and posts.

For many years we have battled with the management of this under-vine strip. We have tried flame weeders, both straw and plastic mulches, as well as strimming and hand hoeing. Also an old tractor mounted inter-row hoe of various sorts. We can certainly appreciate why it is that farmers in general and
wine growers in particular adopted chemical weed killers (herbicides) to combat this problem. Spraying must be far far easier and cheaper than any of the other methods.

But with organic farming spraying is not an option. There are no organically approved herbicides! Mechanical, Thermal or mulching techniques are the only possibilities.

We have decided to invest in the latest equipment to deal with the problem mechanically since all other methods don’t seem to work well at all. During the past 20 years mechanical means have been developed and refined so that now there is a variety of equipment out there designed specially for this purpose. Not much in the U.K. though. Hence my trip to France and my excuse to drop off and visit Chaplis.

I went immediately to the Tourist Information office to ask if Organic Chablis existed. “Of course” I was told and three Locations were marked on the Chablis map for me by the helpful attendant. Bit disappointing of course, that out of the thousands of acres of vines in this ‘Apellation’ only 3 vineyards were organic!

Visitors & Tours
At this time of year we re-open the vineyard to visitors for Vineyard & Woodland Nature Trail + Wine Tasting so if you are looking for something special (and different) to do with the kids ( or without the kids) this Summer,do make the effort to visit. Or, if you are a member of a club or society looking for a day out for a group, don’t be shy about recommending us to the relevant committee, etc. Details on our guided Tours can be found on our website.

Gifts
Or, if you are looking for Birthday gifts, then check out our gift boxes and wines available from our website, Rosé is back, but there’s only 275 bottles so be quick!  Here’s hoping you will enjoy reading all about growing vines in the first installment of our 4-part piece on vine growing.  Even if you don’t plant an entire vineyard, just one against a wall can look very attractive and be an endless source of fascinations as it goes through its annual growth cycle. And, if everything works out you may even get some tasty grapes to eat at the end of the summer!

Yours in wine,

Roy Cook (wine-maker)
...................................................................................................................................................................................
AN INTRODUCTION TO ORGANIC VITICULTURE
(part 1 of a 4 part series on 'How to plant and grow your own organic grapes')

Site Preparation

1) Drainage
Unless the site is on a decent slope or has quite sandy, stony or chalk character some form of land drainage is advisable. On larger plots this can be installed by a drainage contractor or on smaller plots with a mini-digger. Perforated 3-4” (75 - 100 mm) diameter plastic land drains are laid in excavated trenches at a depth of 24” (60 cm) and back-filled to within 9” (20 cm) of the surface with shingle. Lines of pipes spaced 15 meters or so apart are laid in a herring bone fashion for field drainage.

2) Deep loosening
Sometimes called ‘sub-soiling’ this involves a tractor driven implement being pulled through the soil at a depth of 15-18” so as to loosen and aerate the lower level of soil to enable the vine roots to easily penetrate the soil so that the plants establish more quickly and achieve vigorous growth.

3) Manuring
Well-rotted FYM or other rotted organic matter is ideal to improve the fertility of the soil.

4) pH
Check the pH of the soil and correct by adding lime to achieve  6.5 - 7.0 pH reading.

5) Ploughing
On a field scale the next step would be to plough the land at a depth of 10” - 14”.
On a garden scale this step (and some of the preceding steps) could be omitted. Turning over the soil could be done in autumn, winter or spring as long as soil conditions are favourable (not too wet).

6) Cultivation
Immediately prior to planting the ploughed area will require cultivating with a rotovator or power harrow to create a good fine crumb tilth on the surface that will be useful when back-filling the holes after planting and for laying the black plastic mulch to suppress weed growth.

7) Marking out the Site
Step 1: First put in the end-posts at the ends of each row. These can be either native chestnut (hardwood) or treated softwood, with length of 8’(2.4m) and minimum diameter tops of 4” (10cm). They should be banged in to the ground to a depth of 18” (45cm).
Step 2: Stretch a taught 2mm diameter soft galvanized wire at ground level between the posts. The wire marks the position of each of the vine rows. Also position pairs of bamboo canes every 20 meters or so along the row to hold the wire in precisely the correct position, so that it cannot be accidentally kicked out of position, otherwise what should be dead straight rows could turn out looking very crooked indeed once the vineyard is mature!
Step 3: Position bamboo canes about 2’ (60cm) outside of the two outside rows of the block spaced the same distance apart as the vines are to be planted in the row. Then using a quantity of twine, walk across the wires and around the canes feeding out the twine as you go, so that a criss-cross pattern of wires and twine is created. Where the wire and twine intersect marks the location of each vine. At each intersection a small blob of lime should be placed so as to indicate the precise position of where to make the holes for planting.

8) Planting
Once the planting positions have been located in this way, the strings can be completely removed. The wires need only to be moved over about one meter, so that they lie roughly in the middle of what will become the alleyways, leaving the line of blobs of lime free to work on.  Holes for planting can be made with a spade, if the number of vines is not too great, or, alternatively, with a 4” mechanical auger. Holes should be 8 - 10” (20-25cm) deep.  Planting should commence as soon as, say, 1 row of holes has been made, and before the soil in the hole has a chance to dry out. Planting is best done in May once the soil has warmed up. Trim the roots back with secateurs before planting so that they can be spread out horizontally at the bottom of the hole.  Well-rotted manure or some water retaining material such as peat can be mixed with the soil and placed in the hole just below and just above the roots of the young vine. It should be tamped down firmly around the roots when back-filling the hole so as to get the air out and to maximize the water-holding capacity of the soil.  After lightly covering the roots with soil, it is a good idea to water-in the young plants, and to then complete the back-fill with crumbly, moist top soil.

Grafted Vines or Cuttings
Commercial vines are created by vine-breeders on the Continent and are always supplied as ‘grafted’ vines. At the time of writing there are no suppliers of organically certified vine plants, though there are some vine breeders in Germany trialling organic reproductive methods. At present it is necessary to obtain special derogation from an organic certifying organization, before buying non-organic vines. Only the top 1”-2” of the plant has the good wine quality ‘vitis vinifera’ buds. The lower 8”-10” is known as the rootstock. When planting, it is therefore important that the graft is above soil level, otherwise the plant will try to send out roots from the ‘vitis vinifera’ part. Young vines are grafted in this way to minimize the risk of the vine pest “phyloxera” that eats the roots of ‘vitis vinifera’ vines but does not seem to like the American rootstocks.
This vine pest was responsible for widespread vineyard damage in France and elsewhere during the late 19th and early 20th centuries until grafting techniques were employed.  If you are prepared to risk the appearance of ‘phyloxera’ you can grow vines from cuttings.  If, however, this pest does move in you will be required to notify the government authorities who have the power to make the owner destroy the vineyard and eradicate the pest!  Nevertheless, it is not illegal and vines can be grown very successfully from cuttings, assuming of course, that you can get hold of the desired variety in the desired quantity!

Growing from Cuttings
If you can obtain a ready supply of 1 year old canes of the variety of your choice, then you can create your vineyard from cuttings rather than grafted bought-in vines with roots. Cuttings suitable for rooting are lengths of well-ripened wood about 10”-12” long and of at least pencil thickness.  A small ‘heel’ of old wood at the bottom of the cane is said to improve the rooting potential.  Otherwise just cut the cane along the line that appears on the canes just below the buds.  Once this cut has been made the cutting should be placed in water until planting, which should be done within a few days or so, that is, before the water can rot the wood.  We have had success with cuttings by planting 2 cuttings into each position and, if they both take, allowing both to grow until the 4th year when the weaker one is cut away at ground level. Cuttings should be planted to a depth of 8”-10” leaving just one bud above soil surface.  Following planting the row can be covered with mulch in the same way as for grafted vines.

Growing from seed
This is not at all possible as vines do not grow true from seed, so the plant you end up with could be anything at all, and will almost certainly be worthless for anything except foliage.

[TO BE CONTINUED IN AUTUMN NEWSLETTER]