Yesterday's post was not an early April Fool's Day prank. Nor was it a bad dream to thankfully be awoken from. Those nasty deer really did chomp their way through about one third of what would have been the 2010 vintage of Vinoland's Orange muscat planting.This is what all the Orange muscat vines should look like; healthy, shiny leaves with baby flower/grape clusters already formed, promising a fairly decent sized crop in September. But no, those ignoble interlopers nipped it in the bud, literally!
4 comments:
sorry to hear of your loss. In Texas, the biggest offenders are raccoons!
I am still laughing at the thought of the look on vinomakers face...kind of like mine when passing through Oakland!
What is it with animals? They're born to eat grass, so they eat leaves, flowers, buds.....it's not like deer are an endangered species, so:
SHOOT THE FERKERS!!!
2B: We lose some lower clusters of ripe fruit to racoons just prior to harvest. The deer don't eat the fruit, they just like the succulent new shoots that happen to contain the new vintage. Secondary (and sometimes tertiary) buds will push out and the vine will eventually look normal, but these buds are generally fruitless. I'm just glad they didn't get into the Pinot gris/grigio: the Orange muscat is just an experimental block that Vinomaker wants to use for a dessert wine...still heartbreaking all the same.
Thud: Vinomaker was not happy, you know he hates deer even when they don't get into the vineyard.
Affer: It's not like there is a shortage of other things to eat right now, the grasses are thigh high...but the vine buds are very tender and right at eye level for them. They are vineyard pests of the highest order.
How's your aim?
Post a Comment