Birth of a Vineyard!

Vines waiting to be planted

We have finally done it! Jay and I planted a real test block of grapes vines! At the end of April we headed over to Inland Dessert in Benton City WA to pick up our vines. 100 in total: 25 Malbec, 25 Cabernet Franc, 25 Pinot Noir and 25 Pinot Blanc. Then, the following week, in early May, we finally planted them, about

First vine planted!

one month late, but luckily the ground is still quite moist and plants are still dormant. I had no idea how long it would take to plant them, but we finished in just 6 hours! Now, I have an idea of what it will be like to plant the next planting. But what to plant next?

At our next visit, a month later, a fairly large percentage of the vines had started to break bud or just plain leafed out and started to “vine up”! The straglers of the bunch, oddly enough, were the Malbec. Strange, becuase of all the varities we planted, the Malbec had the largest, beefiest root systems.

The vineyard one month later.

Our next visit, which will be Fourth of July weekend, is greatly anticipated as the weather has heated up a bit, with a few days already reaching up into the low eighties!

In July, we are taking a much needed vacation in Canada, just over the border, up the Canadian side of the Okanagan Valley to check out their many wineries. I see lots of both Pinot Noir and Blanc listed, as well as some lesser know varities like Kerner, a German hybrid. Ice wines and late harvest are also on the list of wines to check out!

Hopefully, the next time I post, I will have even more growth to show off, provided I have set the irrigation to enough time and frequency. We shall see!

Cabernet Franc blooms!