IN THE BEGINNING CONTINUED

Then came the fun part; having a house built. The construction started in July 2003 and, once underway, the house progressed with only a few hitches and we moved in on November 28.

The property, a long and narrow rectangle, was originally a farmer's field and was used for hay. There are trees around most of the fence line, a south facing slope and one facing north are separated by a gully and scrub brush. The house is at the south end and the vineyard is at the other, facing south.

It's always best to turn over the soil of the vineyard before the winter so that the frost will help to break it up in preparation for planting the following spring. With a few delays for weather and broken equipment, our vineyard was deep-ripped on December 29, 2003. Early spring 2004, the vineyard was cultivated several times and on June 19, 2,400 Pinot Noir and 1,250 Pinot Gris vines were machine-planted. We planted at what is known as “high-density”, that is 4 feet between rows and 3 feet between plants. As a result we had to buy a special small tractor and have the implements custom-built, locally.

On May 19, 2005, 900 Pinot Gris and 2,780 Pinot Noir followed by 1,450 Pinot Noir on June 16, 2006. That is enough to keep us busy since there are only the two of us working in the vineyard.

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