When we planted our first vines in 2003, we thought that those vines would last fifty years. But there are hazards to growing grapes on the High Plains. We were happy with about 200 acres of grapes, but as we have had a loss of vines, we are needing to plant new vines to replace some of our existing vines.
Continuing our Legacy of Quality Estate Wine
Quality wine starts in the vineyard. We want to continue to produce quality estate wine for our customers as well as providing grapes for our winery friends around the state. So planning must begin now for wines that will not be bottled for three, four, five, or more years in the future.
Newly Planted Dormant Vine
These photos show you that these plantings are a little different than our usual planting of vines.
Yes, this is what our plantings normally look like, little brown sticks.
Planting Live Vines
We normally plant dormant vines like the one above. But since we were not able to get the varieties on the root stocks that we were wanting in dormant vines, we planted some live vines like these that we were able to purchase.
These plants look a little more encouraging since they have a few green leaves.
New Plantings of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, Trebbiano, and Graciano
Rows and rows have gone in this spring. Approximately 22 acres. Perhaps we will get a few more acres in later this spring and a few more next year. This spring we have planted more Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, Trebbiano, and Graciano.
Graciano is a newer variety of grapes for us to grow. We will be bottling our first estate Graciano in a few months from our 2019 harvest of grapes.
Team Work with The Dirt Farmer
The grapes vines are put into the ground much the same way as the dormant vines. You just have to untangle the leaves, hard work made a little harder.
Lots of team work going on here. The workers like putting in new vineyards because the results are tangible. They can see the results of your hard work.
After the grapes go in, the drip tape follows behind to water the vines. Our original plantings have underground drip, but we have used above ground tape for our recent plantings.
Here you see the new vines going up next to our older vineyards.
More farming news coming soon about our hemp and truffle projects.
Blessings,
Betty
