So this may belong in the newbie section but i think it will get more traffic here..
Here's the deal. When i was ~12-13 I went with a close friend of the family to one of his friends houses to pick wine grapes and make some wine. I dont remember much beyond the crazy amount of bees that were around and the picking/moving of the grapes.
Fast forward to now (i'm 25). I got this person's contact information and gave them a call because i have recently (within the past 6 months) gotten into the hobby and wanted to help around the vineyard if he still had it running because its been a pipe dream for me for a few years now. He apparently had somewhere close to 340 vines which all came directly from california grafted root stock.
Unfortunatly about 8-10 years ago his wife/girlfriend died and he ended up retiring and forgetting about the vineyard. We walked the vineyard today and found that there were still actually grape vines growing through some brush etc. The trellis system is still somewhat intact and i believe some of it can be saved. He has given me and my wine making partner full reign over his vineyard and said do what we want with it as i am in between houses and dont have my own land to plant currently. I believe we found some chardonay grape vines in the mess and we plan to clean up all the brush around the good grapes. We will do some cluster thining on the vines this year and may end up with a few gallons worth of must. I saw atleast 3 vines that were still alive without digging too much through the brush.
This gentlemen also has a basement full of ~15+ carboys, multiple stainless/aluminum variable volume tanks, a bladder press, motorized crusher/destemer 2 large open plastic primary vats, etc. He is was the "money" to the operation as he told us many times that he let people manage his vineyard and he would just make the wine from the harvest.
What he has said we can do is...
-cut down the trees/brush in the vineyard
-maintain current vines (or replace)
-plant any number of vines we want (he suggested 25-50)
What he brings to the party
-Fermenation tanks
-pumps/filters
-landscaping equipment
-crusher/destemer
-bladder press
We need to do an inventory of his equipment (because he is unsure of what he has) and survey the damages to the vines that are left and the trellis systems. He was making wine from roughly 1994-2001 (when he lost his wife/girlfriend). He does bring some good experience to the table but not much as far as the growing and pruning aspect goes. He also mentioned that his sanitization was pretty laxed. We tasted 2 of his yr 2000 vintage bottles but unfortunaly they had since gone to vinegar (or we think). The bottles had a dark film where the wine had been in contact with the glass and it had small black specks in it as well as a brown tinge to it when poured, not to mention the very tart flavor. He mentioned that he wants to jump in our grape order this fall and use his equipment to process it. We have a lot of cleaning and scrubing to do with the equipment as well as the vineyard. He understands that this project we will be doing is simply a stepping stone and wants to help us get to a point where we can do this on our own and know what kind of gear we will need to do more then the occasional 5-6 gallon batch that we started with.
The short of the long: The vineyard is a mess, and we have a chance to get some experience doing heavy pruning and rescue of forgotton vines, not to mention possible planting/trellising experience. I will be posting pictures and updates here looking for some advice as some of his methods seem to be pretty old school/laxed and he doesnt have much knowledge on the trellis system or growing aspect.
I plan to be out there at the latest of this weekend to take some pictures and start the weedwacking so feel free to give any advice before then, and come back for the pictures!
Here's the deal. When i was ~12-13 I went with a close friend of the family to one of his friends houses to pick wine grapes and make some wine. I dont remember much beyond the crazy amount of bees that were around and the picking/moving of the grapes.
Fast forward to now (i'm 25). I got this person's contact information and gave them a call because i have recently (within the past 6 months) gotten into the hobby and wanted to help around the vineyard if he still had it running because its been a pipe dream for me for a few years now. He apparently had somewhere close to 340 vines which all came directly from california grafted root stock.
Unfortunatly about 8-10 years ago his wife/girlfriend died and he ended up retiring and forgetting about the vineyard. We walked the vineyard today and found that there were still actually grape vines growing through some brush etc. The trellis system is still somewhat intact and i believe some of it can be saved. He has given me and my wine making partner full reign over his vineyard and said do what we want with it as i am in between houses and dont have my own land to plant currently. I believe we found some chardonay grape vines in the mess and we plan to clean up all the brush around the good grapes. We will do some cluster thining on the vines this year and may end up with a few gallons worth of must. I saw atleast 3 vines that were still alive without digging too much through the brush.
This gentlemen also has a basement full of ~15+ carboys, multiple stainless/aluminum variable volume tanks, a bladder press, motorized crusher/destemer 2 large open plastic primary vats, etc. He is was the "money" to the operation as he told us many times that he let people manage his vineyard and he would just make the wine from the harvest.
What he has said we can do is...
-cut down the trees/brush in the vineyard
-maintain current vines (or replace)
-plant any number of vines we want (he suggested 25-50)
What he brings to the party
-Fermenation tanks
-pumps/filters
-landscaping equipment
-crusher/destemer
-bladder press
We need to do an inventory of his equipment (because he is unsure of what he has) and survey the damages to the vines that are left and the trellis systems. He was making wine from roughly 1994-2001 (when he lost his wife/girlfriend). He does bring some good experience to the table but not much as far as the growing and pruning aspect goes. He also mentioned that his sanitization was pretty laxed. We tasted 2 of his yr 2000 vintage bottles but unfortunaly they had since gone to vinegar (or we think). The bottles had a dark film where the wine had been in contact with the glass and it had small black specks in it as well as a brown tinge to it when poured, not to mention the very tart flavor. He mentioned that he wants to jump in our grape order this fall and use his equipment to process it. We have a lot of cleaning and scrubing to do with the equipment as well as the vineyard. He understands that this project we will be doing is simply a stepping stone and wants to help us get to a point where we can do this on our own and know what kind of gear we will need to do more then the occasional 5-6 gallon batch that we started with.
The short of the long: The vineyard is a mess, and we have a chance to get some experience doing heavy pruning and rescue of forgotton vines, not to mention possible planting/trellising experience. I will be posting pictures and updates here looking for some advice as some of his methods seem to be pretty old school/laxed and he doesnt have much knowledge on the trellis system or growing aspect.
I plan to be out there at the latest of this weekend to take some pictures and start the weedwacking so feel free to give any advice before then, and come back for the pictures!
