A long, cold night in Martinborough – the first frost greets us

What a doozy!!!
As usual the first frost of this season was not as forecasted or as planned to unravel, this frost had total control over the Martinborough town ship and outer edges in its grasp! Estimated by the frost expert (??) this frost was due to show it’s ugly side at 3am but as we all were settling down to sleep at a reasonable hour of 9pm the cell phone echoed its tune beside the bed to say, hey it’s time to get to work and fight the present and building frost.

Wind mills were already in full swing all over town and as time went on more and more fired up as well as two helicopters that did there circuits of the vineyards they were patrolling.

Blair, Kyle and I had around 2 hours to circulate our vineyards getting a bearing on what the temperature were going to do. At 11pm we felt our first ice on the irrigation and put Collins water on followed by Om Santi wind mill then off to Clouston to fire up the water system there. It was not until 3.30am that we put Wharekauhau’s two wind mills on with the temperature there dropping quite low to -1.5. By 04.30 the frosts presence was well felt with lows of -2.3 in certain areas of Clouston Sav where the buds have not yet moved.

As the sun rose the temperature stayed stable around the -1 to 0 deg for there was a slight breeze that had picked up and saved the temperature from plummeting. All the wind mills and water systems ran very well and made the fight that much easier to control.

Author: Derek

It Finally Happened!

Well it had to come! After all last season without a single frost we were definitely due for one, especially after the last few wet cold days here in Martinborough.
It was an early frost alert at 11:05pm that first woke Blair and I up, but was quickly ignored though, for it was a weather station in Wharekauhau Vineyard which at this stage does not need to be protected. So back to sleep we went for a few more hours till the next alert had us up and out the door at 2am sharp. The frost monitors alert Blair and I at 0.5^o so we have a little bit of time to scope out the temperatures over all the vineyards and determine what needs to go on first when the temperature gets close to, and under 0^o in some places.
So as of 02:30 the windmill and SIS machine at Om Santi were in full swing with the temperature there at 0^o and ice forming on the irrigation tubing. From there it was a few hours wait until at 5am we put both the water on in Collins bottom Pinot block and then Cloustons overhead sprinklers to cover the Chardonnay and Pinot that is in full bud movement. The lowest temperature fell to around -1.5^o at Wharekauhau and -1.0^o at Clouston.
Not a bad night to start the frost season off, giving both Blair and I (whom are a little rusty after a full 24 odd months of not using the equipment) an easy introduction to how all operates again.
Mission accomplished…..

Author: Derek

Frost

Well here I am at 04.30, have been up since around 02.30 sitting and driving around our vineyards watching in anticipation for the temp to hit the dreaded 0 mark. The temps have fluctuated between .1 to around 2. At the moment they are sitting around 1.5.
I must ask though, why it is that we have no frost all spring and yet in the early harvest period we encounter this prick of a thing!
And to think all of our days are already long enough with out this rude awakening soo early in the morning.
Damm you changing weather patterns!

Author: Derek