Whats Behind the Vines?

As all our wine fans out there know, we have decided to plant 30 Cabernet Franc and 30 Vidal Blanc vines in the coming week. But many do not know much about the varieties or what they might expect from their taste and aroma.

After consulting with several successful area vintners, we bought our vines from Double A. Vinyard in upstate New York. They supply just about ever variety you can think of on just about every popular rootstock. Based on the heartiness and growing region we decided to go with our two "starter" varieties mentioned above. By comparing with local growers and taking soil samples, we decided these were the two best varieties that would be hearty enough to survive the seasonal temperature swings and give a large enough yield after a few years of growth. In using vines grafted onto 101-14 rootstock we hope to avoid the onset of disease and overhydration of the roots. Vidal Blanc and Cabernet Franc would also allow us to test our winemaking skills with both a white and red wine variety.

Vidal Blanc is a hybrid of Ugni Blanc and Rayon d'Or that was designed to by a French Breeder, Jean Louis Vidal in the 1930's. For vineyards in Cognac, the Charente region of France, this vine produced a fruity wine with Pineapple and Grapefruit notes. Its winter hardiness has allowed it now to be cultivated as far north as Canada and often is used to produce ice wines. It's sweeter, acidic and fruity nature make it an ideal dessert wine but can be served with light fare.

Cabernet Franc is a major variety grown in the Bordeaux region of France and is used primarily for blending with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. It can be vinified alone, often in Chinon in Loire and had been used as an ice wine in Canada. The variety dates back to before the 18th Century and is a parent of Cabernet Sauvignon but is lighter in taste and smell. It is a bright pale red wine with aromas of tobacco, raspberry and cassis.

As the vines grow we plan to keep the blog updated with photos and growth developments over the next months and years.

Ground meets cultivator

FYI: Many of these first few posts will be coming one after the other because we are trying desperately to get up to date with the progress of the vineyard.

The soil in Culpeper County like most of Virginia, I imagine, needs lots of lime before it will support much life. Thanks to the scientists at Virginia Tech we added approximately 15 40 lbs. bags of pelletized limestone to the soil. A few bags were added several weeks ago and the remainder was added this past weekend, March 22, 2008.

This past weekend was also special because we rented a cultivator attachment for the tractor. Prior attempts with the push roto-tiller proved futile because the roots and rocks consistently broke the safety pins. Not the case with the cultivator, which was much more effective in getting deeper roots and really churning the soil. Virginia is cursed/blessed with heavy clay soil and the cultivator helped to break the first foot or so of that clay up.

The cultivator was used once over the entire plot to break up the ground and remove some of the larger roots. Limestone was then spread over the plot with the smaller tractor. This was followed by another run with the cultivator until we felt that the soil was sufficiently churned up and many of the roots had been brought to the surface.

We also used last Saturday to crudely mark how our rows will be arranged: we have decided on four rows of 15 plants each. I think the math means that each row will be approximately 90 feet long. We will have 8 feet between each rows and space the vines 6 feet from each other in the rows. We have 30 Vidal Blanc and 30 cabernet franc vines. We have not determined how we will arrange the two varietals yet.

The preliminary thinking on the trellis system is 8 end posts and 8 line posts: line posts will be situated after every 5 plants. This could change, but it is pretty standard.

The posts should be put in the ground with the the plants because doing so later after the plants are in the ground can disturb the plants and negatively effect their growth. Thus, we are going to get the posts and plants into the ground this weekend and worry about the wire later when the vines have matured.

Tree removal

Anyone who does not marvel at the amount of cleared land on earth has never spent several hours on several weekends attempting to remove trees from the ground. Trees have nothing to do all day except grow and they dont like to leave the earth easily. That being said, man prevailed once again over tree and we are left with a large plot of cleared land that will be the site of our first planting.

The plot is approximately several thousand square feet that will be divided into four rows of 15 plants each.

The problem of novices with little equipment removing trees is that the ground is left with root upon root upon root. The hope is that these will eventually just wither away and die, but for the time being they stick up out of the ground like hundreds of whiskers.

A technique that has proven somewhat effective for removing some of the roots is to rake the plot with the rake attachement on the John Deere tractor. The rake attachment can be lowered to sink the teeth a few inches into the ground and some of the surface roots are easily removed with a few passes of the tractor. The frustrating part is that the more passes you make, the more roots that are uncovered and the process starts all over again.

Mother nature work your magic on roots!

In the Pursuit of Wine

As my brother in overalls and flannel has made clear, the purpose of this blog is to document the pursuit of wine.

The pursuit of wine is not easy and it is especially not easy for two twenty-somethings with little money and full time jobs that keep us locked up inside all day. These odds may dissuade lesser men or more sober men, but not us. Odds be damned!

And now to the business at hand ....