2014 Virginia Wine Summit

As is always the case, the growing season hits hard and fast, leaving little time for posting.

On October 23rd John and I attended the Virginia Wine Summit at the Jefferson Hotel in Richmond.   The Summit, as stated on the website, "is a celebration of Virginia’s wine and food culture."  We weren't sure what to expect, but we were so glad we attended.  The event brought together many of Virginia's best winemakers, restaurateurs & sommeliers from up and down the east coast, national beverage professionals and wine writers.  We met many wonderful folks in the wine and hospitality professions and look forward to working with some of them down the road.  Here is a link to the website -- Virginia Wine Summit

The morning started off with a blind tasting of Virginia Meritage blends against California and Bordeaux wines.   A Virginia wine -- the 2010 Barboursville's Octagon, was the most preferred and for good reason!  My other favorite was the 2009 Barren Ridge Meritage while John loved the 2010 Jefferson Meritage.  We also enjoyed the 2009 Michael Shapps Meritage.  The other four wines in the tasting:  2011 Stagg's Leap Merlot, 2009 Chateau La Croix de Casse, 2010 L'Ecole No. 41 Seven Hills and 2010 Glennelly Lady My Cabernet Sauvignon from South Africa.

Our distinguished Panel

The Wines Ready to Taste

 From the Grand Tasting we went into breakout sessions.   John headed for the food and wine pairings while I went to learn about the Dark Horses, varietals that are uncommon and beginning to make a statement on the wine scene:  Albarino, Petit Manseng, Petit Verdot and Tannat.  Albarino is almost like a riesling and may not be suited for our microclimate though it was delicious.  The manseng was very nice as well and more suited to our vineyard.  The verdot was okay and the Tannat was surprisingly good.  It has been showing up in a good number of our Meritage blends.  We'll definitely look at planting this one.   The wines in this session were:
2013 Crysalis Albarino, 2013 Michael Shapps Petit Manseng, DuCard Petit Verdot, and 2010 Fabbiolo Tannat.

 At a delicious lunch prepared by Chef Jeremiah Langhorne, we met two young winemakers, Lee Hartman of Bluestone Vineyard and Seth Chambers of Naked Mountain Winery.   They had served their wines at the Meet Virginia Whites session.  Can't wait to taste their wines!

We also met up again with Jane Kincheloe, Owner, and Richard Carlson, Manager, of Paradise Springs Winery.   The story of Paradise Springs is pretty amazing, from a rocky start battling the local planning board in 2008 to taking the Governor's Cup with their 2009 Chardonnay!  We're planning a trip to Clifton for a visit and tasting soon!

The lunch itself was fantastic.  I really enjoyed the salad with the Foggy Ridge Cider, Autumn in Virginia.   And who knew how delicious sunchokes are!  Going to try growing those next year.

Following a key note speech by Ray Isle and chocolates from Gearharts , we moved onto the True to Our Roots session.   Vintners from the various regions in Virginia and Dr. Tony Wolf related their experiences growing in a variety of microclimates within the state.  We also had more wine to taste.

In February it is off to the Virginia Vineyards Association Winter Technical Meeting.  We'll be attending the Beginning Growers session on Thursday.  Looking forward to meeting other newbies and old friends!

Test Results Are In

The soil tests from VA Tech are in.  Looks like we are good to go once we have incorporated lime.  With a SOM (organic matter) of only 1.4% we will be adding more compost in our garden areas, but it this may work well for the vines; only time will tell.  P (phosphorus) and Ca (calcium) are low.  Wood ash added with the lime should take care of the P.   wood ash when we incorporate the lime.  Mg (magnesium) is high so we'll be careful of which limestone product we use.    All in all it's pretty much what I expected for unimproved pasture where woodland used to be.

We've also been researching grape varieties.   It seems a pretty good bet that Bordeaux grapes might do well here if we can keep the downy and powdery mildews under control.   So far the possibilities for our test plot planting are:  Sauvignon blanc, Semillion, Cab Sauvignon, Cab Franc, Merlot, Malbec, the Spanish Albarino, Tannat, Petit Manseng, Viognier, Muscato Ottonel, as well as the hybrids Traminette and Chardonnel.  We are also considering the Virginia native, Norton. Since we do not have plans to make or wine, we aren't as concerned with growing varieties we like to drink as much as we are focusing on what works on our particular terroir and what others need or want for their wine production.   The test plot will yield only enough for small batch home production.  Feel free to contact us if you are a home vintner interested in making wine from fresh grapes instead of 'kit juice.'  We look forward to the next step in the process - making our final variety selections, matching the proper rootstock and ordering! 

Here is to Grape Expectations!  Cin-cin!

Playing in the Dirt

We began the testing with a little assistance from our LGD.   His native curiosity is what will keep the four and two legged critters away from our vines.

Even in the small (0.08 acre - 3500 avg sf) area where we will be planting our first vines, the soils range in color.  

 The entire area we selected is supposed to be a type of soil known as Appling Sandy Loam which should be good for growing.  It is well drained, particularly on our 2-5% slope but it will also hold enough water to sustain the vines once they establish their root system.   Here is the description from the USGS Soils web site:
  

APPLING SERIES -The Appling series consists of very deep, well drained, moderately permeable soils on ridges and side slopes of the Piedmont uplands. They are deep to saprolite and very deep to bedrock. They formed in residuum weathered from felsic igneous and metamorphic rocks of the Piedmont uplands. Slopes range from 0 to 25 percent. Near the type location, mean annual precipitation is 45 inches and mean annual temperature is 60 degrees F.

TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine, kaolinitic, thermic Typic Kanhapludults

The trick is going to be figuring out which root stock will work best with which varieties on the soils we have.  At 35 inches, the bottom of our test pit, we hit this yellow clay with white striations.  It may be kaolinitic clay.   We sent a sample to the Virginia Tech lab for identification.  Hopefully it is something our vines can work with.

As you can see, this soil is still holding moisture around two feet down.  Our last rain was almost a week ago.

Virginia Vineyards Association

Today we submitted our membership to the Virginia Vineyards Association  an organization of viticulturists and associated business entities dedicated to growing great wine in Virginia.  I wish we had found the organization sooner as they sponsor some great seminars.   The Summer Technical Seminar is to be held on June 5th at Barboursville Winery & Vineyards.   Unfortunately we are unable to attend, but the Winter Event will be a must do event!

Another recommended resource we have purchased is the Wine Grape Production Guide for Eastern North America


We also marked out the location for our test plot.   It is roughly 0.08 acres that could fit 104 vines at 8 x 4 foot spacing.   The area is 60' x 64' x 80' x 40'   Tomorrow we'll take soil samples for testing. Once we receive that information we will have a better idea of the varieties we can grow.

Once the test soils are gathered, we begin the process of marking rows in the field.  Instead of using herbicides to kill off grasses/weeds in the vine rows, we will be using a leaf litter mulch i.e. clean chopped leaves.   This will kill the vegetation, add some organic compost and prevent weed seed germination all at the same time.  

Vineyard Soils Report

Here are the images of the Vineyard Site Analysis, pages two and three.  For anyone interested in growing vinifera grapes, it is highly recommended.

This is the location we've selected for several rows of grapes.  It will be our test plot.   The area is approximately 1/4 acre on a slight east facing slope.

We also bit the bullet and invested in a small tractor with a bucket and backhoe to help with all the work that still needs doing to prepare for the arrival of the vines.   Our choice was a Kubota BX25D.  It is a subcompact machine that packs a lot of bang for its size and price.  We felt it would be the best bet for work between rows without compacting soils near the vines both in terms of width and weight.    We're rapidly learning that growing quality grapes isn't going to be cheap!

Getting Started

It's been a long, long, long winter but it's given us the chance to do our homework on the vineyard.     For those in Virginia, the  VA Tech Viticulture Extension is is an excellent place to start.   We were able to access their beta mapping system to find out what kind of soils we have in the areas we hope to grow our grapes.   Vineyard Soils Maps

Unfortunately it looks like we have Partlow loam in almost 1/3 of the area we hope to plant.  We also have more moisture in the upland soils than vinifera grapes prefer.  Amendments with organic matter will be needed.