Anti-freeze

Yesterday we had the first frost of spring. Although to us it brings an opportunity for some beautiful photography - blue skies, bright sun, and crystal chandelier vines - for the vignerons it is a very tense and stressful period.

The vines are fragile, their young buds just starting to burst from their stems and shoot into life. The frost can stunt or kill this growth. To help protect the vines against the will of nature, some of the vignerons use nature to protect them. They do this by spraying them with water, which in the sub zero temperatures, freezes around the buds.

It’s quite a simple process but at the same time complex in its science. Quite a wonder of nature, who’d have thought deliberately freezing the vines would actually protect them?.

We have seen this method performed on a number of occasions and Brian has spoken to various vignerons to understand the chemistry behind it. He has captured his findings to date in the article he has written called ‘Protecting vines from frost’ – available here.

Thought I would also share some of the ‘getting wet’ moments of making our vlog.