THE BIRTH OF A VINEYARD
Chapter Four: Cultivation Chapter One: Poles and Posts Chapter Two: Irrigation Chapter Three: The Winery Chapter Five: The Vines Home Go to newest posting Last April, when we began this project (under different management than we enjoy today), we watched many, many man-hours go into preparing the soil. Tractors came and went, back and forth, towing various implements. All that, it turned out, was for naught. At the time, a wise adviser counseled us that our fifteen acres needed to be ripped. Adequately ripped. Looking at the implement previous management had used, our adviser pronounced it woefully inadequate for the purpose, given its mere capacity of six inches' penetration of the soil. What did we know? Such are the perils of buying into a "turn-key" operation, and we paid for our . . . innocence? . . . blind faith? . . . laziness? In dollars and in energies, we paid. So now, having taken over the reins of our own future, having contracted with management we trust to do it right, we watch, learn, question, listen. How did we think it could happen any other way? First, let's get the ripping right. Bill Derrick tows a three-shaft implement that reaches down eighteen inches.
Michael says he wishes the rip could be three feet deep, to reach down into the granite substrata, but that would require a much larger tractor, and what we've hired has to make its way between wooden end posts. If Michael had been at the helm from the outset, cultivation would have come before anything.
In Napa County, California, Michael says he was on a job that ripped six feet deep. "Driving that machine was like riding in the cockpit of a 747," he laughs. After the ripping comes the tilling. All those huge clods must be broken up and smoothed out, first lengthwise and then crosswise of the fields. Dan Gillen says it's a bigger task than he'd bargained for or quoted us a price on, but he'll stick to his quote. Dan's a good man.
He says, "It's better to have a small tractor and work it to death than to have a big one that just sits there and never gets used." For sure, a big one couldn't negotiate between those wooden end poles. But Dan handles this little guy with the ease of an experienced operator. Newest Posting Ripping and rototilling having been done, it's time to bring the field to grade and finish it. Byron Higinbotham has the right equipment for this job.
Byron's twelve-foot-wide, 100hp tractor pulls a Culti-Packer crosswise of the fields . . .
. . . then lengthwise of the fields . . .
. . . until all the fields are finished as beautifully as this one, behind the winery. This field will receive our Petite Syrah.
Whereas the necessary ripping and rototilling left our fields rather "puffy" —not smooth enough to walk on, not finely broken up enough to plant into— this culti-packing renders the soil about as lump-free as we're going to get, considering these fields had been planted in hay, a perennial pasture crop that leaves the soil less fractile than another crop might have. Still, we are well pleased. It's time for the next step. Chapter One: Poles and Posts Chapter Two: Irrigation Chapter Three: The Winery Chapter Five: The Vines Home
