The vines have been growing like tryphids - they are already well over 10 feet in height - and the team have been wire-adjusting and tucking to ensure that the vines grow straight and tall and do not suffer wine damage.Flowering is early this year and thankfully the frost season has now finished, which means that the team can focus on the quality of the emerging grapes and not have to worry about staying up all night to monitor the buds.Next on the watch-list will be the birds, who will start to attack the crop when the sugar sets in. But at the moment it is busy in the vineyard just through maintaining the wire adjustments and bud rubbing (literally rubbing off the buds that grow on the bottom of the vines) and controlling weeds (which are also growing like tryphids, thanks to the recent wet and humid weather in Martinborough).Next reports will be in the New Year, at which time leaf plucking will need to be achieved...