Vintage 2017 Begins

The Pinot Noir is shooting.
It received its first copper/sulphur fungicide spray yesterday.
The Tempranillo and Semillon are not far behind with a fairly even bud burst occurring.
The Cabernet Sauvignon will probably shoot in the next week or so. Bud swell is evident.

We have been flat out resetting stays and repairing netting. The kangaroos gave the netting a bit of a work over this winter. The green grass in the mid rows was just too tempting I guess.
The house on the property diagonally behind us has been vacant for many months (but now sold) and, with no human activity there, the 'roos have been slowly encroaching on the occupied properties. There are some big bucks among the mob. A male Eastern Grey Kangaroo can grow to 1.5 m tall with a 1m long tail and can weigh up to 85kg.
They can be very protective of the does and their joeys so although they are normally easy to scare off any approach is made with some caution. While they are most active at dawn and dusk, from the amount of droppings around, there are plenty of nocturnal visits as well.
Am sure they will retreat to the bush when the new neighbours move in in October.

We have also raised the height of the netting in the Cabernet to make it more comfortable to work under.
We used surplus electric fencing tape strung between the strainers under the netting. This was raised using 3m x 20mm PVC pipe which was set into 0.5m X 25mm PVC pipe driven into the ground.
This system seems to be working so far and has stood up to a few early spring westerly wind storms.
The weather is warming up fast. I came across my first snake of the season the other day.
So now the the real vineyard work starts.
I hope the weather gods are kind this year.