The birth of a vineyard

Last week the vines were delivered and because I was going to a Festival namely the Geyser 'saamtrek', we decided only to start planting this week. The vines were stored in a cold room at 5 degrees and the roots being watered every half a day. After their stay in the cold room we have to rehidrate it in water for 24hrs before planting. This all come down to that we can only start to plant today.
We started with the Chenin blanc which is situated near the Calitzdorp Country Lodge. This being a bit more elevated above the riverbed which also means more airflow. Chenin is a cultivar prone to have rot in its bunches especially if it is not well aerated. The Chenin blanc is also a cultivar which carries a good yield so the soils must be well drained. Both of these objectives is reached with the specific terrior of the Hoenderboer as we call it. (For the less informed a chicken farmer once owned the piece of land.) We decided to plant 3000 vines / day as we want to water them all and see that we get finished planting before the end of the day. I think we underestimated but that is always better.
The blooming period for the apricots is also finished and the frost a few weeks ago really hit us hard especially in the blocks nearest to the town. Some of the trees only carried one or two flowers which means no harvest. The blocks higher up away from the river aswell as further from town had better flowering. I also took out a hectare of apricots to make place for the new plantings hoping the Herminashof blocks will deliver but you can never trust or predict nature.
The peaches in contrast to the apricots had a brilliant flowering period and we will really have to thin to get the right size. The funny thing is SAD allready let me know they are looking for apricots and not so much peaches likewise Langeberg. That is the agricultural balances for you.
The vineyards are just busy budding and we will soon see how their flowering goes. I expect with no natural intervention that it might be a good year. But only time will tell.