I received this definitive photo from Stephanie Toole at Mount Horrocks taken this week in the Cordon Cut Vineyard with the message “Pray we don’t get any frosts!”, illustrating how vignerons are at the constant mercy of the weather and like any agriculture, there are crucial, nail biting moments or stages throughout the year than determine success or failure that they have absolutely no control over. Commercial madness really, but your sort of need to be a bit ‘mad’ to be in the wine growing business, and you have to be downright crazy to do what Toole does, growing riesling for a late harvest wine by means of ‘Cordon Cut’ with the grapes hanging there for weeks at the mercy of the weather.
