In spring of 2023 we had two young boys and a baby on the way. The pressure was on. We got a late start on the excavation, had over 70 posts to set, and the vines were coming in a week… and they were calling for rain all week. I was four months pregnant and couldn’t help with any of the physical labor, which meant it was all on Matt to get things ready. With the help of his friend Darren, Matt was able to use a combination of an auger (with very little effectiveness) and hand power, to dig and set all the end posts. From there, Matt strung up the entire vineyard to make sure all the posts were symmetrical and marked each location with paint. The rows are facing on a hillside that runs north/south. Due to space, we had to tighten up our vineyard a bit to maximize the area. The rows are spaced seven foot apart, with the vines to be set five foot on center. From there, Matt hand dug all the inside posts by himself. Needless to say, he wasn’t done on time and the vines arrived. We kept them in their shipping boxes for about another two weeks so they would stay dormant and hydrated.
After a little over two weeks of digging in very rocky earth to set posts, it was time to dig another 160 holes for the vines. I would just look out the window periodically and the scene/ song from the movie “Holes” would pop in my head. The poor guy was out there sun up to sun down, sometimes in the rain trying to get these holes done. Matt started with the few rows of Cabernet Sauvignon since they arrived first. Then he moved on to the Marquette, and finished with the Petit Pearl. Sangiovese is also on the docket to grow, but they won’t arrive until Spring of 2024 as they were sold out everywhere we looked for 2023. All those holes still have to be dug…
Working a little backwards, with the vines safe in the ground, it was time to set the trellis wire. We used 12 gauge wire through the posts with anchor vice grips on each end. The low cord was set at 36″ off the ground. We will end up repeating this process later on this year for our high cord which will be placed at 60″. From there, we used bamboo as our supports for the vines to grow up to the low cords. Our first vineyard was done! Finally!
