Tomorrow I am driving up to Lancaster, PA to attend a day long New Grower Workshop put on my Tony Wolf at Virigina Tech. As many of you know, and as my family can attest, I don’t have much to do with conventional wisdom.

Conventional wisdom would dictate that I could get this same information from Surry Community College or other resources put out by the NC Winegrowers Association. This is not to dish Surry Community College, I attended a great half-day, FREE, seminar by Gill Giese on pruning a few weeks ago and it was extremeley helpful and well presented. But generally, I do not opt for classes put on by local growers / educators, as they all seem to be following a lot of the same viticultural practices, and I simply like to be different!

Thus I take most of my classes in VA and other states, from which I have to filter out the stuff not specific to North Carolina climate and soil, but I also take away some viewpoints from many different, very exerpienced growers, which I believe over time will help me become a better grower. Or not, at the minimum we all take different paths, and I am enjoying my chosen path!

I do have some questions that I’m hoping will be answered:

1. I am still not quite sure how I am going to layout my 1.5 acres for planting this spring. I might end up laying out string and and marking the rows and plant locations that way, by liming the location of the holes and staking the end posts.

2) I have this beautiful sloping plot of land, all limed, subsoiled, disced, all ready to go. I decided not to put down a cover crop as my previous choice of Buckwheat turned out to be too volatile for spring planting. So how do I do weed control for first year vines? Do I plant the vines and then put down a preemergent like Chateaux? Put the preemergent down first and then plant?

I think I will plant, and then band spray for weeds.

Pruning

Pruning is pretty easy. Whether I am doing it exactly correct or not, well that remains to be seen. I have one row of Cabernet Sauvignon that just took off last year. Those plants I’ve been able to lay down two nice canes and should get some fruit this year. Which I’ll probably end up eating rather than making into wine. I’m still not sure why that row did so well. it was the most challenged in the sense that these planted were literally planted into my lawn. A row was laid out and holes were augered for the plants amongst the grass of my lawn.

Since it’s an experimental vineyard, I figured that the lawn would help control vigor. Needless to say for my other four rows, having a cover crop extending underneath the trellis really slowed things down, way down. Those plants did not grow enough. I’m hoping that my killing the grass underneath the trellis this year, and through the applicaton of fertilizer and lime this past fall, that those plants will bud out nicely and get up to the fruiting wire by fall.

I am not real vigor fan after that, but I think that some vigor during plant establishment is not necessarily a bad thing. We’ll see how well it works.

Sp pruning the first row was easy, I had killed off most of the surrounding grass last year, so all that needed to be done was to lay down a couple strong canes. If the canes were not at least the dimaeter of a #2 pencil, I pruned it back to 3 or 4 buds near the graft union.

Rows 2-5 are proving to be a bit more cumbersome as these rows need not only to be pruned but extensively weeded as well. Weeding out deep rooted crab grass and moss is time consuming, a task I hope to aoid in coming years through better weed control. Rows 2-5 all are being cut down to a few buds near the graft union. I will be band spraying to kill off the grass / wedds under the trellis, laying down additional fertilizer and also putting up a deer fence as quite few of those plants were chomped on by deer, which also limited the cane growth.

I’ll post some pictures later today…well I have to now write my article for On The Vine, which is due tomorrow!

Brent

As a marketer I can understand the recent movement by the wineries in the “Swan Creek” area to begin the process of establishing their own AVA. It’s a fairly common practice to establish an AVA, such as the Yadkin Valley AVA, and then split off an AVA or two or three after that. From an economic perspective, the phrase “the more the merrier” seems to be applicable (thanks Rebel!)

From a marketing perspective on the part of the Swan creek wineries, it’s probably a smart move. This because I believe that the Yadkin Valley region is too young vitculturally to support many more wineries. I could be very wrong, but let me tell you the evidence that supports my position.

1) I’ve heard talk that many of the wineries are suffering financially. I’ve heard it from enough primary sources that there is little doubt that it’s probably true. Too many wineries, not enough people to buy the wine.

For older wineries, it’s a result of the influx of all the new wineries. No real winery brands have been established outside of Westbend, so the new simply replace the old. For new wineries, well that’s just a part of the business plan, it takes 7-8 years for an average winery to break even. So of course, they have hardships during those years.

2) Some of the new wineries in the area are suffering from the high cost of entry into the market. Their initial aspirations were those of creating great wine, and now suddenly they have spent far more money than they intended. They have their grapes located on land of somewhat dubious viticultural quality, and are now beholden to a bank which is forcing them to put out wine regardless of quality. Decisions are being made based on quantity, not quality.

The net is that the wineries are going to have to be more cut throat to get the business. The wineries of the Swan creek area have realized this and are attempting to disassociate from the parent in an attempt to set themselves apart from the frey, in the ultimate hopes of drawing the lions share of the foot traffic. It might work. It would work much better if they actually have a microclimate which proves conducive to growing different varietals, but I don’t think that’s going to happen.

Is it right for the collective? I have not researched the age of other AVAs before the child splits off from the parent, nor have I researched the relative size of these appellations that have shed offspring. But it would seem to me that the relative nascency of the Yadkin Valley Appellation would behoove all participants to stay together until all the marketing efforts are coordinated and the region well established.

The establishment of a child AVA, while the parent is still indeed a child, runs the risk of fragmentation and brand confusion. There’s been no clear brand establishment for the Yadkin Valley as of yet, the vines too young, the winemakers too inexperienced, the wineries too nondescript. It’s simply a “pretty place to visit and relax with friends”.

I haven’t gotten my hands on the ATF application for the Swan Creek AVA, it would be an interesting read to see how they are delinating themselves from the rest of the Yadkin Valley. I’ll try and get my hands on the application to see how it reads and who prepared it.

Here is something I pulled from the net, this would have to be driven by Raffaldini, as they have all the cash to support it:

Raffaldini Vineyards of Ronda is petitioning the Treasury Department for North Carolina’s second viticultural area, to be called the Swan Creek AVA. American Vitacultural Area designation helps to market the wines and can bring attention and financial support to the area. Part of the Swan Creek area is within the existing Yadkin Valley AVA, according to Stephen Lyons, general manager of Raffaldini. The proposed AVA is near North Wilkesboro, close to Brushy Mountain, and includes the Raffaldini, Buck Shoals, Laurel Gray and Windy Gap wineries. — KP

I guess I support the initiative. I’d probably do it myself if I was Raffaldini, hopefully they’ll actually put out some decent wines and maybe the Swan Creek AVA will end up being truly unique. Although I’m not convinced that they have such a unique microclimate, I’d like to see the weather data over the past 50 years to see if that claim is supportable.

More fun facts:

In 1985, North Carolina was home to four wineries, but by 1999, it claimed 18 wineries — a significant increase. However, the industry exploded from 2000 to early 2005, when the number of wineries went from 21 to 43. Nearly a dozen more are expected to open in the next 12 months.

A few upcoming events you may not have known about:

• March 26 — Barrel tasting and preview of 2004 vintage, Villa Appalaccia (Virginia), noon-4 p.m. Free. Information: (540) 593-3100.

• April 2 — Barrel tasting, Tomahawk Mill Winery (Virginia), noon-4 p.m. Information: (434) 432-1063.

• April 3 — Great Escape Wine Festival, 11 a.m.-5 p.m., downtown North Wilkesboro. Tickets: $15. Information: 984-3926.

I’m upset that this is my 2nd time writing this, the first time somehow I erased the post after spending 20 minutes writing it!

Before I put this in the Elkin Tribune, I wanted to spread the word via the blog that I need some help. Readers, please spread the word and have potential candidates email me at info@greatncwines.com. No phone calls please.

Part-Time Grounds Person

The ideal candidate will be a college student or anyone who has a flexible schedule. Hours will be around eight per week and the pay is $8 an hour. Cash.

Responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

- weed whacking and pulling
- keeping up my lawn (little or no lawn mowing)
- cleaning land of debris
- weeding my grapevines (1.5 acres)
- possible spraying of insecticides and fungicides (grapes) when I am away
- watering garden
- weed pulling in garden
- some landscaping (mulching, stones, etc.)

MUST HAVE YOUR OWN TRANSPORTATION. MUST BE RELIABLE AND RESPONSBILE. MUST HAVE REFERENCES.

Part-Time Web Designer and / or Developer

Don’t let the title fool you. This is actually a pretty simple, but time consuming job.

Requirements:

- Extensive knowledge of the Internet
- High speed connection at home
- Knowledge of Frontpage
- Understanding of basic HTML
- Demonstrated ability to research subjects using the Internet
- Good command of the English language
- Good writing skills
- Willingness to sign a two year non-compete and non-disclosure agreement

Job is for 8-10 hours a week, maybe 20 hours. You will be responsible for building out websites to my specification. I will give you a registered URL and will give you essentially a template by which you will research the required information and then take that knowledge and put it up on the new website.

You must understand basic table creation, and really understand how a website is built using frontpage or some other web authoring tool.

Pay is $8 / hr. Cash.

Ideally you would also have some rudimentary knowledge of how to install PhP/mySQL applications like Movable Type, etc.. Ideally you would have some rudimentary web design skills in Photoshop, etc.. but none of these are requirements.

Contact me via email at info@greatncwines.com and tell me why you wnat the job and how you meet my requirements!

Thanks!

Brent

After a one month hiatus, it’s back!

http://www.greatncwines.com/villa_kleinheksel_weather/vineyard_weather.htm

We are on a beach in Fort Myers Beach Florida. Unfortunately, we still have to work each day, but that’s life! Thankfully there a re many unsuspecting home owners who leave their wireless networks unprotected, so we can jack in to the Internet almost anywhere – usually with 2-3 home wifi networks to choose from…so it’s pretty easy to lay in the sun while also getting some work done.

I have had about 3 Bud lights right now and it’s only 1pm! I am sitting under a palm tree on our rooftop deck hijacking the Internet from the neighboring hotel. True, I look like a dork, but I take solace in the fact that I’ve been doing this for three weeks now with plenty of vacation time in a wonderful climate. Most would be jealous of my position.

It’s still sort of hard to work though when it’s so nice. That being siad, it’s time for lunch. I got about 45 minutes in with another hour planned for later this afternoon.

Hasta!

Brent and Jen