Last year I did a short post about St Vincent's Day, which grew out of the Roman holiday of Paganalia. It's that time of year again. Today is Paganalia.
This year the natural cycle seems to be working better for us. The first full moon of the year came on January 10th this year, giving us 11 days to prune, vs the one day we had last year. We didn't get it done in a day last year of course, and the vines seemed out of cycle all year.
The weather also cooperated. We had sun and moderate temperatures all through pruning. We didn't have a drop of rain. Good for working outside, but I've been a little worried about the lack of rain. Then right on schedule it started to rain yesterday.
Bottling went very well, and we got out offer letters with out incident. I think the only thing we're hoping for is good sales. We need that to keep things going of course, and we've heard many wineries are struggling right now.
We really wanted to purchase some new equipment this year. A shaker table for the de-stemmer, and a lift - sorting table combo. Right now though we're being conservative and holding off on those things until we see how the next two releases go. We still may decide to pay down some debt instead of getting the equipment. We just aren't really anxious to take more bank financing with things the way they are, and would rather hold off or offer equity in the business for the money to buy equipment.
Hopefully the moon will keep cooperating, and it will all work out in 2009.
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2 comments:
I got an email from Nova Roma saying that the 24th is paganalia. I never observed this before. Not sure what to do.
The 22nd is St. Vincent's Day. We're observing it on the 24th though also with a party. The 24th would have been the right lunar day to for Paganalia, with the new moon and the Romans would have celebrated it based on the lunar calander.
The traditional party was like Mardi Gras in the country side. Veal was the normal meal.
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