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December 12th, 2006 Another magic sunset. That deserves a glass of wine! Julie and I have had an incredible month hosting parties, attending parties, and this past Sunday, December 10th, we were there in the stands, in the end zone, when LT set the NFL record for touchdowns. We have been busy this month so fewer opportunities to post. We ordered our vines through Novavine in Sonoma, We are planting 129 vines, mostly Italian, and the vines will arrive in February. We have got a good start on our Vertical Shoot Positioning (VSP) Trellis system and we expect to have it completed in early January. The trellis system is aesthetically pleasing, constructed out of ground contact treated lodge pole pine for the post and 12.5 gauge wire. All of the holes for the 129 vines were dug 3 feet deep and 10" wide before the construction of the trellis. The irrigation wire is at 15", the cordon wire is at 30", and then the two VSP wires at 42" and 54". The tension systems are so that you can tighten the wires every year. The next two weekends will be working on the irrigation system and of course watching the Chargers! In February the trellis system will be ready, and the vines will be planted.
Front vineyard, 30 Cabernet Sauvignon vines, 6ft. rows, 6ft. spacing, we will use a double cordon system.
Back vineyard, 90 sangiovese vines, 10 Cabernet Franc vines.
Wine table in the vineyard, this table was made from a pine tree I cut down before construction.
We kept the trellis system rather low for aesthetic reasons. At the Opus One vineyards in Napa ,the cordon arm is only at 24" and the trelliss sytem about a foot lower than ours.
The bottom wires are single strand to hold the irrigation and the cordon. The top[ two sets are double and can be easily repositioned. These are for the shoots.
A wirevise tensioned,
Hard to dig the holes after the trellis system is constructed so you do it before. The goal is to loosen the soil down to three feet so the root system of the vine can take a good hold. Soil testing has been conducted, our Ph is good so no additives to the soil such as gypsum are planned. There are no obstacles such as hard-pan or rock that will prevent vine development based on the test borings that were conducted. The soil is a sandy loam and a rootstock that is low vigor and likes sandy soils was selected. Row orientation is designed to provide the most sunlight and airflow. This is good for photosynthesis, as well as keeping powdery mildew (which will be our toughest problem) at bay. |
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