A little something about vineyards

Marlborough, the area at the north of the South Island where I'm staying at the moment, is New Zealands largest wine producing region and there really are an awful lot of vineyards around. Apparently the wine made from this region is quite distinctive and popular and a lot of the vineyards in the area make profits in the million dollar region, which makes me think that perhaps I should look into owning a vineyard instead of working on one!


An awful lot goes on throughout the year on a vineyard and at the moment I'm working just after the harvest season has ended to get the vineyard ready for next year's growth. After all the grapes are harvested, the vines have to be pruned, stripped, trimmed and then wrapped, ready for the next year. As I mentioned in an earlier post, pruning, stripping and trimming are usually done by guys and girls usually do the wrapping, mainly because pruning and stripping are a lot more physically demanding than wrapping.


The vines, which after the harvest will consist of many canes, will be pruned to leave just 4-6 canes, which will then be stripped and trimmed of any extra leaves, etc and after that, they'll be wrapped along the wire trellis and fastened with a wire tie. Its quite time consuming work, each vineyard needing a pruning, stripping/trimming and wrapping team to finish off the harvest season. Its tough work, but pays good money if you're fast and attracts many holidaying backpackers who need to earn a little extra money to fund their travels.


Anyhow, this wasn't a very detailed description of vineyard work, but hopefully it'll give you all a better idea of what it all entails.