Damage

The first bit of damage to the vines. My heart skipped a beat when I this small hole on Saturday. The culprit has not been identified, but it will be dispatched from this earth with extreme prejudice.

Compost Pile ... Exciting

Growth

Here is how much some of the vines have grown in a few weeks. I've included my hand and fat finger for scale. I am scrambling now to understand pruning before the vines become a mess of leaves and shoots.

Irrigation

The irrigation issue has proven to be exhausting because of all the possibilities and the amount of equipment and thought required.

Our ultimate aim is to have three rain barrels catch water from the roof of the house and pump this water out of the barrels into a larger 250 gallon holding tank. From the holding tank, the water will be pumped to the vines through a 100 foot 1/2 inch PVC pipe running the length of each row.

We are unsure of the best way to hold up the PVC pipe in between the posts and how we can mimick a drip flow out of the pipe. We want to drill a very small hole above each plant, but we fear that the spray will be too rough and errode the soil around the plant.


Here is the PVC pipe that we are going to try out as part of our irrigation system. This is 100 feet of 1/2 inch pipe.

Close up of the hose end. The plan is to attach a hose from either the house or a large water tank (still in the works).

A close up shot of the intersection of two 10 foot pipes.

A close up shot of the end cap on the far end of the row.

2008 Vintage of Ebrietas

Our first vintage, 2008, will be bottled under the name Ebrietas. This will be the name of our winery and the name on the bottle for all subsequent vintages. This year we will be using grapes sourced from VA vineyard(s) and we will eventually switch to estate grown grapes from our own vineyard in several years when the vines are mature.

Ebrietas is a latin term for drunkenness or intoxication. We are honest enough to admit that we simply like the sound of it and the meaning isnt bad either.

Pictures of the growth on the vines and irrigation dilemma

I'm surprised by the emergence of leaves so quickly. I thought that the buds would start out like shoots and develop leaves much later; shows how much I know.

A shot of the soaker hose that was used last week when we had no rain. The jury is still out on whether this can be a long term solution to irrigation.

The Birth!

No you are not hallucinating the vines are growing. Because we are now viticulturists I can use the jargon term: bud break. Our vines have experienced their first bud break after being planted in their new permanent home.

We are following the advice that says allow all of the buds to sprout in the first year in order to find out which one is the most vigorous and then trim back to one main shoot and train that one shoot up to the first trellis wire.

Also, on a side note, the name of the vineyard will be changing soon. Our board of directors found Clay Hill Vineyard to be too pedestrian and uninspiring. Stay tuned for the announcement of a new name following the board vote.

Water Water Everywhere

As we all know the great saying, "April showers bring May flowers" and we can and have come to expect decent rainfall amounts in the early Spring with vigorous plant growth to follow thereafter. Throughout the first half of April we have had 2.3 inches of rain, well over the requirements of an inch of rain per week for healthy vine growth. But with just one week of scant rainfall and growth will begin to get stunted. This is where an irrigation system can come in to play.

The initial plan is to use available rainwater, collected from the Hall Manor to collect in rain barrels above the vineyard. By placing the barrels as high up as possible, we hope to achieve a downhill flow to the vines. This would create enough water pressure to press through the hoses but also reach the ends of the rows evenly. The barrels would drain through standard hoses out to the vineyard where drip irrigation lines, attached to the line posts, would thoroughly soak the ground. This would cover us through the dry spells in the spring, summer and fall and allow us the option to still tap into well water should our rain barrel supply run low.

This will be our next significant project as we want to be prepared for a slowdown in rainfall well before it gets here. As with the drought we had last summer, we hope for the best but prepare for the worst. With everything going on in the vineyard this year, we hope to chronicle our irrigation development with photos as the plan becomes reality.

More exciting news!

It is with great pleasure that I announce the hiring of two new employees to Clay Hill Vineyard. Joining myself and John, co-winemakers and viticulturalists, are Donny and Patty!

Donny was hired as vineyard manager and Patty as assistant vineyard manager and chief scientist in the winery. Their experience and keen knowledge of the vineyard made the choice to bring them on board a simple one.

We look forward to working with them and hopefully getting their thoughts and experiences on the blog as well.

Exciting news

After much debate we finally compromised on the name of the new vineyard: Clay Hill Vineyard.

The name is a testament to the type of soil we will be working with and seemed fitting considering that with the soil rests our future as winemakers and that neither John nor I like the cutesy or gimmicky names. Although the name is not the most exciting to grace the front of a wine bottle, it doesnt make you cringe either. Success!

Mother nature on our side.

The recent weather is certainly an indication of Mother Nature's approval of our grape growing and eventual wine making.

I will post with the average rainfall at the end of each month and consequently how much watering we had to do ourselves. The goal is to get an inch of water on the vines each week. This past week of March 30, 2008 had three days of significant rainfall and so we were fine. Our fingers are crossed that this type of weather will continue through the first month in the ground.

Grow tubes without stakes makes for a difficult time.

The beauty of flying by the seat of your pants is that you have a forehead slapping moment just about everyday.

Our forehead's were definitely sore after Tuesday, April 1 when we attempted to put grow tubes around the vines without stakes. Our vineyard is located on the top of a hill on the highest part of Hall plantation and without stakes the grow tubes went the way of the wind.

We attempted to set the grow tubes without stakes by pulling dirt up around the bottom of the tubes. This method is suggested anyway as a means of sealing the grow tubes at the bottom. The assumption was that the dirt would be sufficient to keep the grow tubes upright and in place.

Here is a shot of the grow tubes set firmly in the dirt.





This method worked for a few minutes until the wind picked up and the grow tubes went rolling off into the woods.

Alas, we are a determined bunch and we (my mom) decided to use 1.5' to 2' sticks to act as stakes. The sticks proved effective and mother nature was foiled again.

Here is a shot of the vineyard with the grow tubes firmly in place.



The stakes are expected to arrive sometime this week or early next week. At that point we will replace the sticks with proper stakes and wait for the vines to start growing.


Currently the grafts are underground to keep them protected from damage and to harden them following their dormancy. Once the buds start to grow, we will raise the grafts a few inches above the soil to ensure the graft doesn't try and grow roots into the ground at which point we will be screwed.

Breaking ground, finally.

What started as an audacious, alcohol soaked thought of starting a vineyard has become a reality as ground was broken on Saturday, March 29, 2008. With the help of a tractor, an augering tool and two parents, 76 holes were drilled into the earth.

Before:

The Virginia clay made augering a fairly difficult task. It wasn't until we discovered that augering was at least a two person job that it started to move a little more expeditiously.

A good shot of the auger attachment with John for a size comparison.

76 holes took the entire morning to drill. We decided it was best to set the posts first and then plant the vines after the posts were firmly in the ground.

A good shot of a typical plant.

And finally the after shot. Here all of the posts and vines are in the ground and the vines have been watered. We decided not to trim the roots. The holes were just large enough for most of the root systems to fit comfortably. Some vines, however, had larger roots that fit more snugly in the holes and our hope is that this will not negatively affect the health of the plant. We hope that grape vines are as resilient as they seem.

The grow tubes were not in yet and so the baby vines have to brave the conditions for three days until Tuesday when the grow tubes are expected.

Overall Saturday was a success. Aside from a few splinters and a little anxiety about the future of our plants, we are happy about getting this far without breaking the bank or our backs.