巨峰の畑も手を入れなければいけない
のだが、今はワイン葡萄に忙殺されている。
新梢の伸びが止まらないのだ。
巨峰の畑では、何者かが袋を破いたり
色づき始めた粒をつついたりしている。
烏にしては袋のダメージが不自然だ。
ハクビシンかもしれない。
ハクビシンなら両の前足で袋を
破くことも可能だろう。

葡萄栽培家のブログをみていると
烏に大分落とされているみたいだ。

それにしても色が着かない。
やられた房もこの通り。
今年は一体どうなるのやら。

…8月6日はあまりにも重い日で、
それに関して軽々には何も
いえない。

I have been too busy with winegrapes
to take care of Kyoho grape these days.
Shoot growth would not stop due to
heavy rainfall which is the continuous
water supply to the root zone.

In Kyoho vineyards, something have made
damages to the bunches, breaking wrappings
and pecking the colored berries. It may
not be crows as they cannot break warpping
like this. It may be a raccoon dog like
animal with white line on the noze.
It can use both hands to break the
wrapping.

According to a grapegrower's blog, his
bunches are damaged by crows a lot.

By the way, the bunches have not been
colored yet. The damaged bunch in the
picture has little color like this!
What would happen this year.

... August 6 has very heavy meaning
for all the people in the world and
I would not make any short comment
on it.

ようやく日差しが帰って来た
という感じになってきた。
朝のうちは雨でも降ろうかという
雲模様だったのだが。
夜になり激しい雨が一時降ったが
明日は持ちそうで、ようやく傘マーク
のない天気予報が出たようだ。

さて、夕飯は芋で済んでしまった。
自家栽培の「インカの目覚め」。
小粒だが、甘味が強く,肉は濃い黄色
飽きずにこれだけ食べてしまったら
苦しい。

今日は、ある野菜を植えた。
何を植えてると聞かれて
その野菜の名前を答えると
衆目眉唾ものの顔をする。
うまくできるかどうかわからないが
とりあえず、70株ほど苗を
植えた。収穫は10月後半。
さて、うまくできるかどうか。

Sunshine has been back all the way!
The sky was dark as if it would rain
again this morning but it turned to
be a fine warm summer day.
It rained hard for a while indeed
in the evening but it seems to be
fine day tomorrow. I found no umbrella
mark in the weather forecast for the
first time this summer.

I had dinner with only potatos today.
It was 'the waking of Inca' potato.
It is small size potato but it is very
sweet and I finished them all without
getting tired of it but I regret to have
eaten too much.

Today I planted certain vegetable. Everybody
who asked what it was made funny face and
did not believe to plant that vege at
such time. I even don't know if I can
make it fine or not but am just trying
for the first time. I planted about 70
young rootlings. The harvest is expected
to be in the later part of October to
November.

今日は一日中書類作成に忙殺
されてました。　今後のイベントに
参加するための書類ですが、酒類販売は
色々と大変なのです。そのうち二つの
イベントの書類提出期限が迫ってました。

さて、間じかに迫った東京でのイベントです。
8月21日から23日の3日間、去年と同様に
麻布十番納涼祭り「おらがくに自慢」に
出展します。去年と同じ場所ですので
皆さんまたお会いしましょ～ね～。

詳しくは此方↓

http://www.azabujuban.or.jp/event/event_next.html

I have been very busy making documents
for the events coming up soon. There are
many documents required to sell alcohol
beverage at a temporary shop like at
an event. The deadlines for two events
are within this week.

First one is the Azabu Juban Summer Festival
to be held August 21 through 23. My shop will
be at the same place as last year so please
come to chat and taste my wines and juices.

For details, please check the website.

朝方は雲っていたものの
徐々に陽がさしてきて
夏の日差しが夕方まで
続いた。心なしか
畑の葡萄も嬉しそうに
見えたりして。

赤熟れを心配して、
少々房を落とそうかどうか
迷っている。

今日から毎日草刈りです。

Although it was cloudy
this morning, it turned to
be fine and we had sunshine
almost for the rest of the
day until sunset. The leaves seemed
to be happy and welcome the bright sky.

I am wondering if I should drop
some bunches due to the fear of
red bunches.

Main operation now is mowing
from today for a while.

おそらく世界中の（少なくとも
新世界では）ワイン葡萄栽培家と
ワインメーカーでその名を知らない人は
いないだろうと思われる
リチャード・スマート博士との仕事が
あって東京に行ってました。
博士のセミナーの通訳のお手伝いでした。

スマート博士はワイン葡萄栽培の
バイブルとも言える　Sunlight into Wine
の著者でもあり、いかにして高品質のワイン
葡萄を作るかの教育とコンサルタントをして
います。そういう意味では、テロワールだとか
雰囲気で、「一番のワインはフランス産ですよ」
という市場戦略の旧世界のワイン産地からは
目の敵にされているかも。

ワイン愛好家向けセミナーという話だったのが
蓋を開けてみれば錚々たる顔ぶれ
（日本中の大手を含むワインメーカーや栽培家、報道関係者
、ソムリエ初め勉強熱心なワイン愛好家）
が集まり、私よりはるかに語学の達者な方も何人も
いて、途中助け舟など出して頂いたりして
通訳のできはお恥ずかしい限りでした。

色々な意味で刺激的な経験でした。
セミナー内容も刺激に富んでいましたね。
午前10時から午後3時近くまでランチブレイク
なしのセミナーで、ワインテイスティングも
ありました。いずれも博士がコンサルタント
しているワイナリーのものでしたが、
あんなワインがなだれをうって入って来られた日には…。
…もっともっと頑張らなくっちゃね。

その後有志で場所を移して軽く食事を
とりながらインフォーマルに更に
話を伺いました。

あ～あ、とため息の多い週末でした。
でも博士初め多くの方々と知り合えたのは
大収穫でした。

I went to Tokyo over the weekend
from Friday afternoon. I was an
interpreter at a seminar of Dr. Richard
Smart on Saturday whose name is
widely renowned among the world viticulturists
and winemakers at least in the New World.
It is not an exaggeration that literally everybody
in both field knows his name.

He wrote a bible book 'Sunlight into Sun'
in which he showed how to make good quality
grapes for high quality wine. He now teaches
and conducts his consultant business how
to grow good quality grapes for high quality
wines by not sacrificing yield.
In that sense, he might be taken as a danger
person for Old World wine marketers who
have been using unscientific expressions
like 'terroir' to persuade consumers that
the best wine is only produced in France.

The seminar was supposed to be intended
for mainly wine lover but actually
there were many viticulturists, winemakers,
press and serious wine connoisseurs including
very influenctial writers and from Japanese
big wine producers. Some of them are very good
at English who helped me a few times during the
seminar. So as an interpreter, I have to apologize
for my poor ability. Je suis tres honteu!

So it was very much exciting experience
to me in many senses. What he talked about also
included many exciting issues in exciting expressions.
The seminar continued from 10am till almost 3pm without
lunch break. Some wines were tasted from the wineries
he has been consulting with. The wines from relatively
young vines were very good which made me feel a bit
blue. What would happen if such high quality
wines would flood into Japanese market.
I have to make more efforts to make much better
wines than those of today.

After the seminar, more discussion continued
with him over a light meal and drink for a while.

What a weekend, sigh!
But I was very much grateful to have known him
and many other people in wine industry.