Finding the Perfect Location to Create a Craft-Wine Vineyard
Since the acquisition of the well known 100-year-old property and acreage adjacent to his 40-year-old nursery, Bill looked out over his land and immediately thought this would be a perfect location for a vineyard. But what is actually required for a true vineyard? He certainly has enough experience growing endless varieties of different things in the ground. Bill began researching vineyards and the art of growing wine grapes.
The sprawling south-facing hillside was an excellent fit for the next consideration, which was the direction(s) the land faced. Next was what type of infrastructure would be required. He could easily make this happen with his decades of experience nurturing and growing all sorts of difficult foliage from his nursery.
Bill asked himself what types of wines would be good to grow here? Basically taking all of the possibilities of types of wine grapes into consideration, he began narrowing it down by basic growing conditions. Dozens of additional factors also came into play here, like soil conditions, weather, etc. All in all determining what varieties should be grown here, not by popularity, but by quality criteria. The final six were easily ascertained.
Then was the time frame for the overall development of the vineyard. There was much to contemplate: land shaping, building construction, waterways, electrical and irrigation, etc. Rootstock would also have to be extensively researched and ordered years in advance (delivery scheduled mid-March 2013). Delivered March of 2013 and planted in June.
The spacing of the vines and type of vine formations, along with the numerous other considerations had to be taken into account as well. There was also the component of how much wine could be produced, not only how long the different types of wine grapes would take to grow, but how long they would take to ferment and age. We were told it would take 4 years to have grapes to crush. That would not be the case.
2014 We made jelly! Had to make jelly. We were not ready for how many grapes we had.
2015 Amazing! We sold our white grapes but had our reds made for us.
2016 Even more amazing! We made all six varieties of our wines.
The vineyard itself is incredibly beautiful. Any wine lover who has ever seen the rows and rows of the rootstock with grapes on them knows this beauty. The entry to the estate is initially direct, followed by a tree-lined winding road to the Carriage house, where wine tastings and other special events are held.