Monthly Report - May 2022

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The lack of vineyard work is now starting to pray on my mind.  This all changes as I will be setting out soon to start the Chardonnay pruning followed by the Merlot – but this month has been watching the leaves fall and the midrow grasses start to fill up the new colour palette of the vineyard.  You really do need the vines to rest, I have noted that some of the vineyards in the region have sprayed out end of season sprays to fasten up the dormancy of the vines – simply to meet a busy pruning schedule one would assume.  Staff shortages are starting to abate as new backpackers and workers are coming into town, but the chronic shortage of rental accommodation makes all of this a bit of a false mirage as they are likely to move to cheaper locations after a short sojourn in the region.  Not a major problem for us as I will be doing the pruning once more, but it does make the vintage for 2023 expensive once more for the area.

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The Herd and its Foibles…

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Not so much a topic this month, more of a thought that has piqued me for a while, and a recent personal event has brought this to the fore.  I have always sat a little outside of the mainstream, how to put this, a little outside of the “popular” groups.  There are a number of reasons of course and I have self-recognised them myself, and my intelligence and sporting ability when I was young meant that I could get along the edges without causing too much distrust within the “herd”, for a term.  There are always advantages and disadvantages in not sitting comfortably within the herd (big or small), but in my eyes I could not even consider giving up for a millisecond my intellectual independence for a period of “acceptance” within a herd, regardless of the prize as it takes away the one thing you do control and that is what you actually are.

Just recently a vigneron called Roger Pike just dug out his hectare of vines in front of his house in McLaren Vale.  Roger had planted the vines and made wines under the “Marius” label, and they were lauded up and down the country.  He had a past that was very colourful and as he has grown older, he has moved closer and closer to himself – and the giving of his time to the vines, which in turn meant the wines, which ultimately led to the customers was not in his version of his future.  The herd could not understand what he has done, the herd see it all as a crying shame – and when I messaged him and said he must do what he thought best, he replied with the request I continue to “fly the flag of integrity”.  Why would he say that to me?  Because I think he saw a bit of him in me – an introvert in an extrovert wine world and we paper over our inside persona to meet an outside expectation, and Roger, I believe, was over that.

Being in the herd requires a bit of skill, manoeuvring through the options to ensure you are still in line with the majority and to be able to lead as well as follow the unwritten rules of the herd in which you run.  You can most plainly see how this plays out in our woke / conservative culture where many have aligned themselves so strongly in this area, that a simple slip of the tongue (tap of the keyboard) could cause a fall from grace that only a grovelling apology could suffice to bring back order – which is often essential for their health and state of mind.

The herd is not a simple right or left, us and them – it is a gilded package which is bongga in form as it provides you with the assuredness of knowing you are not on the outside looking in like Tiny Tim Cratchit.  Recognition within the herd is never assured, as your tells of not joining in on cue, failing to follow some unwritten rule, not quite getting the easy acceptance that others fall into, haunts those that lack self-confidence and seek comfort in the embrace.  I was for a little while quite jealous of those who could easily slip into social settings and form part of the herd within the first minutes of joining – not so much now, in fact now I find myself thinking if the scene playing out in front of me is genuine or performance?  An extremely skilled performance.

I have no issues with anyone within the herds of their choice.  None at all.  It is perhaps the biggest social contract we have made with society and to not partake could be seen as almost traitorous.  But the herd has its own form of corruption, and this is when members define the way others are to behave within the herd, the nods and looks, the tut tuts and the indifference, this places you within the herd and corrals you, belittles you.

My sister Joanne is an extremely talented lady.  Like my daughter Abi, she is a talented artist but unlike Abi who continues to paint and create, she did not continue with her art until recently where she has started drawing again.  My mother brought across some of her prints that she had made for me and the one print she had framed for me to put on my desk is as below.

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