Chardonnay Vineyard Development

Sorry this post is a little out of order. It took me a while to edit.

The development effort for our Chardonnay vineyard has just about concluded for this year. At my daughter Jennifer’s urging I have been documenting vineyard development in photos. A few of you have seen, in person or photos some portion of this development effort. Hopefully, this picture story will add a little depth to what we have shared before.

We are not doing this on our own. The development manager for the project is Paul Sloan of Small Vines Viticulture, Inc. Harry Walker of Walker Station Vineyards, my next door neighbor, has also been a valuable resource. The new vineyard is on the slope that is east of the house and is approximately 1 acre.

Before any work was done we did soil and water testing to determine the suitability of the site and identify issues to be addressed in the development. The key issue was that the site needed drainage to intercept water from natural seepage. The seepage was visible at two sample sites and one site that showed evidence of prior wetness. To address the wetness, French Drains needed to be installed at a depth of 5’ to move the water away from the vineyard.

The small excavator pictured was soon replaced with a much larger unit due to the slope and soil compaction.

The soil tests identified one additional item. Gypsum needed to be added to the soil at the rate of 3 tons/acre. As soon as the cross slope drains were complete this very big truck arrived to do the spreading.

Chalk lines were put down where each vineyard row would be to guide the ripping. GPS surveys were done before the chalking to establish row locations. Each of our vineyard rows line up precisely with Walker Station’s rows, 18 degrees east of due north. This gives the west side of the vineyard rows a little less sun time (hot afternoon sun) than the east. When we get to actual grapes growing the leaf pruning will also address sun load, more leaves left on the west side of rows.

A D6 Cat was brought in to rip the soil to a depth of 24”. It was quite a sight seeing such a large piece of equipment in your back yard. The ripping tool looked a little like a large plow anchor. Everything shook as this equipment moved up and down the yard.

Following the ripping a tractor with a disc harrow began to break up the surface soils. During the disc work a surprise visitor arrived, much to Doris’s disgust. He was interested in what besides soil was chopped up in the disking. The last step in the soil preparation phase was performed by a box plow. This smoothed out the soils to the final grade.

Using the GPS points the rows and vine locations were again laid out in chalk. With the row lines re-established, re bar stakes were driven at 3 foot intervals in each row. These will support the trunks of the young vines as they mature. With the re bar in place trellis stakes were driven between every third and fourth re bar stake. The trellis stake will support the fruiting wires and drip irrigation hoses.

A new piece of equipment arrived to drive the row end posts that terminate each row. These posts will carry high loads from the weight of the vines and the fruit supported by the wire, and are driven about three feet into the ground.

Before the fruiting wire is strung on the trellis system new trenches were dug for irrigation and frost protection water mains. Earlier during the French drain excavation the well water and power lines were cut and repaired. This was despite hand digging to locate the lines beforehand. Again the lines were cut to the well and the septic system during the irrigation main trenching. We have a 3200 gal water storage tank so it was easy to live without the well for a day, but prompt repairs were required for the septic line cut.

The picture below is the vineyard as it looked on October 5, 2007. It is almost ready for rootstock planting next spring. Before winter rains come in November, a cover crop will be planted and straw waddles installed to protect the vineyard from soil erosion. The infrastructure of the vineyard is almost complete. Some irrigation and frost protection plumbing is needed to connect up to the well. However, water will not be needed until we plant in May so final decisions on that water storage, filtering and pumping configuration can be made over the winter. This fall and winter we will be ordering rootstock and making decisions on which Chardonnay clone(s) bud stock will be grafted to the rootstock. Next year we will be planting root stock and watching it grow. In the fall the bud stock will be grafted and year three will be watching that grow. In year four we can expect a small crop of Chardonnay.

JohnDory Vineyard