The way to the Vineyard

This is one way up to the vineyard it is a steep hillside . There is another way up, a grassy road shrouded in a canopy of trees as a tunnel through the woods. I'll get a picture of that later this summer.

On top of the hill is a ten acre field, about seven acres used to be farmed, but the other 3 acres contain a small abandoned lime quarry and some pasture and woods. Blackberries grow wild along the edge of the woods and are creeping into the field. Trees are beginning to take root and ants have built great mounds in the grass.

I could try to reclaim this land for farming but I think I would rather begin a vineyard. The land has a nice south to southeast exposure and the elevation will provide extended warmth when the valley has already cooled. The soil is clay, not ideal for grapes but it's what I have. I will be doing soil samples this spring to more accurately determine the composition of the soil.

It becomes dry on the hill in summer. The blackberries up there are not nearly as plump as the ones that grow down in the valley. I don't think the dryness will be a bad thing for grapes once they are established. I've always heard that a little stress is good for them.

Oh, by the way, my vineyard is only in my minds eye at this point. The idea only began last fall (2007) when I picked grapes at another vineyard. That was after I spent my spring and summer making mead, dandelion wine, and numerous berry wines. I picked over three gallons of yellow dandelion petals, over 50 pounds of wild blackberries, and many more pounds of strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, gooseberries, and black caps.

These are all fun country wines to make and I am sure I will continue to make more but grapes are what true wines are about. I have made two grape wines from kits, German Muller Thurgau and Chocolate Raspberry Port still in the making. I have another kit waiting for me to begin - Chilean Carmenere/Cabernet Sauvignon, and a fourth one on order for April - Italian Brunello.

I hope to continue amusing myself with kits and country wines until the vineyard in my mind becomes a reality at the top of the hill, plants in 2008 with harvests by 2012 maybe?