It is said the price of Liberty is eternal vigilance and this has been re-worked in the name of many causes so perhaps we could fashion it into a viticultural statement that the price of high-quality wine is eternal vigilance? We’re never as smart as we think we are because Mother Nature loves to deal us wild cards. No matter what we know about the season we’ve experienced to date, we can never know beyond a day or so what the future holds. There is, however, a delicious irony (bad pun used yet again). It’s a lot different to the old days and no wonder we are obsessed by it. We monitor the vine growth stages and temperatures and can gain significant insight into what style of wine we might be heading for and what management techniques we can apply to give the best outcomes. With 48 vintages at Moss Wood under the belt, we now approach each season with clearer ideas. Of course, we had the excellent modelling by Dr John Gladstones, who’s work showed we could anticipate good quality in an average Margaret River season but that was nothing like the detailed understanding of the vineyard we have today. Each year was a new adventure and we sailed blindly into it, with very limited experience to use as a guide as to what quality and style we might expect. Of course, we tried hard to make the best wine we could but we knew so little about what we were dealing with. We look back fondly at our early vintages and marvel at the innocence of the time. In the end, the fundamental quality of the wines we make, from any variety, is entirely dependent on how well the grapes ripened and which is a direct result of the daily temperatures we receive. ![]() We have to keep a close eye on the amount and timing of precipitation and if we get too much, reapply a treatment, even if only a few days have passed since the last.Īnother way of understanding the focus on the weather is to consider temperature and how its fluctuations affect us. For example, our primary cover comes from Sulphur, a topical treatment for powdery mildew, that washes off with too much rain. In order to keep the vineyard safe from fungal disease, we monitor the weather to decide how and what treatments we should use. It comes up in conversation at Moss Wood a lot and which is hardly a surprise when considering how much is riding on it. ![]() In fact, while admitting to nerd-like tendencies, mostly he obsesses about the weather, especially during the growing season. ![]() Any Dads reading this will no doubt understand how proud this makes him feel. In the eyes of the Mugford family, Keith is the resident nerd.
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