hiya bucks in Bourne End, Flackwell Heath, Marlow, Wycombe, Wooburn November 2016 | Page 22
The diary of a
BUCKINGHAMSHIRE
VINEYARD aged 8¼
INTO THE SEASON OF MISTS AND MELLOW
FRUITFULNESS…..OCTOBER IN THE VINEYARD
IS HARVEST TIME. AFTER THE LONG WEEKS OF
WINTER, SPRING AND SUMMER THE GRAPES ARE
NEARING THEIR NEMESIS. PICKING TIME!
This may be the busiest month in the vineyard’s calendar but it is no hardship.
Bringing home the grapes is a happy sociable affair. It’s a celebration. The sight
of the fruits of all the year’s labours piled high in the collecting baskets is strangely
satisfying. And harvest time is party time. An excuse to round up the family and
game friends and get those harvest brunch menus on the go.
To determine the dates of picking two vital
tests – for sugar and acid levels – need to be
undertaken. Then in dialogue with the wine
maker - the alchemist - we settle on a suitable
day for delivering the precious stock to fit in with
the other neighbouring vineyards who are also
lining up to deliver their cargo to the winery.
But we have a problem. We aren’t the only ones
eyeing up the juicy crop with relish. Dropmore
has experienced an unusual first – not one we
want to repeat. A bird strike or, more specifically,
a parakeet strike. The day before the first harvest,
the vineyard sounds like the Amazon rainforest –
reason is not hard to see as a swarm of these
beautiful but pesky birds swoop and divebomb
the vines. Clearly the word has got round that
it’s all on the grapevine and half the Datchet
roost, it seems, has decamped to Dropmore.
deterrents. The parakeets take no notice. We
piece together the 13metre pole from which a
giant balloon/kite contraption floats over the
vineyard maintaining silent guard over the crop.
So far so good. If this fails, we will have to get
out the gas-powered banger but while this is
highly effective in disturbing unwanted birds, it
also disturbs long-suffering neighbours, so this
is a last resort.
I scurry up and down the rows posting silver
reflector strips that are supposed to act as bird
01628 664376
[email protected]
22
www.dropmorewines.co.uk
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