East Coast Rhone?

Hello,

I am planting a small test vineyard (1/2-1 acre) before hopefully expanding into a small commercial vineyard/winery. I'm located in Piedmont Virginia on a high elevation mountaintop with a very gravelly base.

I've already decided to plant Cab Sauv (337 and 412 for early ripening). However I'm more interested in growing Rhone varietals. Definitely Viogner and Syrah. But I have a couple questions regarding other selections:

1) I really love Grenache and think I can ripen it here. Does head training vines typically slow down ripening? Sure it's all about vine management but does the system usually slow things down? I'd love to have en gobelet vines in traditional fashion and I have low humidity pressure, but the ripening is already worrying me.

2) I don't think VA (and my site especially) could ripen Mouvedre, especially year in year out. Does anyone have an idea for a replacement? Doesn't have to be traditional. Tannat is successful here and could perform a similar function in a blend, but definitely different characteristics in the bottle. What's the closest I could get?

Thank you very much,

Hi

We're on a similar journey as you, albeit on the other side of the earth! We're located in Goomburra, Queensland, also in a high elevation area (650m) and have just planted 1 acre of Saperavi vines (1,000, grafted onto Schwarzmann rootstock). We don't have your gravelly soil, but rather heavy clay.

I'm assuming you planted last Spring and so are six months ahead of us. I'd be interested to know what approach you took in planting, what approach you're taking in Year 1 and 2 for pruning/training, and whether you heard anything about slowing down ripening.

I have heard that Syrah is not the best for gobelet training because the vine trucks are relatively weak.