Old Wagon Road Vineyard

2016 Season

noreply@blogger.com (Beth and Chris) — Wed, 06 Jul 2016 20:57:00 +0000

The first half of 2016 has flown by! It is hard to believe the last post had snow on the vineyard. Spring was a beautiful time in the vineyard. It is now very green and we are watching the grapes slowly grow.

Dolcetto - Spring 2016

Lagrein - Summer 2016

The big project this summer is to build the winery. Chris has been working hard on this project since early May and he hopes to have it completed in time for harvest this fall. The exterior framing is up and the siding is underway.

Winter Wonderland

noreply@blogger.com (Beth and Chris) — Tue, 29 Dec 2015 23:27:00 +0000

Accumulating snow has been fairly elusive since we moved to the Pacific Northwest, but much to our surprise, we had a small amount recently! It was a beautiful sight to see the vineyard with an inch or two of snow. We are hoping for more snow this winter.

Harvest 2015

noreply@blogger.com (Beth and Chris) — Tue, 29 Dec 2015 23:20:00 +0000

It has been a long time since the last vineyard update post! We took a break to focus on building our house on the vineyard. It is done now, so it is time to get back into the groove of posting regular updates.

This fall was our first real harvest! We collected approximately half a ton of Sauvignon Blanc and almost 2 tons of Pinot Noir. The Sauvignon Blanc will be ready to sell in January. The Pinot Noir will have to age until next fall.

Post Pounding in the fog

noreply@blogger.com (Beth and Chris) — Wed, 24 Dec 2014 22:24:00 +0000

There are several areas that had yet to have the posts put in for the trellis. Most of these areas have no plants yet, either. In preparation for plants that will someday be planted, we wanted to finish installing the metal posts that will later hold the trellis wire.

The task of post pounding is very tedious. Each post is meticulously placed and the pounded in with a very heavy post pounder. This tough job does not make for good pictures, but the eerie look of the vineyard on the day we worked on the posts does make for a couple of pretty pictures. It is not uncommon for the property to be cloaked in a dense fog. It is quite pretty to see.

Wine making process - step 1

noreply@blogger.com (Beth and Chris) — Thu, 23 Oct 2014 18:41:00 +0000

Now that we have grapes, we need to figure out how to make wine. We had a small harvest, so we did all of the work by hand. Luckily, we were able to recruit my mom to help us.

The first step was to de-stem all of the grapes that we picked. We may have eaten a few of the grapes during this process...and they were delicious!

After a couple of hours of effort, we had all of our grapes cleaned up and ready to press. As you can see, we collected two 9x13 pans and one 8x8 pan of Sauvignon Blanc, and one large bowl of Pinot Noir.

We pressed the SB using a variety of standard kitchen items. We put the grapes in a mesh bag and smashed them with a potato masher and bowls of various size. We collected the juice in a 5 gallon buck. To ensure we got it all, we put the grapes in a strainer and put a bowl on top with a weight in it and let it sit overnight. The juice is separated from the skins and seeds in this case.

The Pinot Noir was easier to process because the juice and the skins stay together. We did press the grapes a bit before letting it sit. The juice will darken as a result of sitting on the skins. This is what makes red wines red. The juice will also pick up more of the flavors from the skins.

After we collected the juice, we let both types sit for some time. At this point in the process we had about a gallon of SB and a little bit over one bottle of PN. There are several more steps in the process before we have finished, bottled wine. Check the blog over the next few weeks for more.

Harvest 2014

noreply@blogger.com (Beth and Chris) — Thu, 18 Sep 2014 21:16:00 +0000

The first harvest for Old Wagon Road Vineyards was September 16, 2014!

We were not expecting a very large harvest since the vines were only planted in Spring 2013. Typically, the vines take 3-5 years to produce viable fruit. We were hoping to get enough grapes to play with at home. Luckily, we did!

We had been watching the grapes and the weather for the last week or so. The grapes were getting very sweet which means that it is almost time to harvest. A few days prior to picking the grapes, Chris checked the brix and found a range of 23.25-26. Brix is the sugar content. This is a pretty good range for our grapes.

Chris, Jensen, and I spent a couple of hours on the property walking the aisles to pick our grapes. Most of the Pinot Noir plants had little or no fruit. Occasionally, we found one that had several clusters. The Sauvignon Blanc was a bit more vigorous and the plants had more grapes, but still only a small crop. Next year we anticipate getting a much larger crop from all vines planed in 2013.

Pinot Noir

Chris picking Pinot Noir grapes

Pinot Noir

Our little boy, Jensen, was out to help. He was our quality control. Fortunately, the grapes were at just the right height for him.

Jensen picking a grape to try

Hmmm...not sure he liked that very much

In the end, we filled about 6 inches in the bottom of our bin. We took the grapes home and started the wine making process. Check back soon for the blogs about our first experience making wine.

Pinot Noir crop

Sauvignon Blanc crop (covering Pinot Noir crop)

More pictures!

noreply@blogger.com (Beth and Chris) — Wed, 27 Aug 2014 16:54:00 +0000

These photos were taken last weekend. The grapes are coming along nicely!

A hint of color!

noreply@blogger.com (Beth and Chris) — Wed, 20 Aug 2014 18:54:00 +0000

This is an exciting time of year. The summer sun is beating down on the vines and they love it. The formerly very small grapes are growing and changing color!

Look closely at the center of the cluster and you will see a purple grape!

Chris recently did another run with the tiller to clean up the weeds in the rows. They look great now! The two pictures below are the newly planted area with Pinot Noir.

Here is a picture of the lonely Dolcetto rows. We will be filling in an acre with Dolcetto eventually.

The final picture is some of the original Pinot Noir that was planted in 2013. Nearly all of the vines are ready to be trunked this year.

Summer maintenance

noreply@blogger.com (Beth and Chris) — Tue, 15 Jul 2014 17:48:00 +0000

Summer is a very busy time in the vineyard. The vines that were trunked last year are growing grapes and large canopies. The newer vines are progressing well; nearly all of the vines planted prior to this year will be trunked at the end of this season. Chris has spent many hours roaming the aisles to ensure all of the plants are tied up and trained.

There are a few other summer tasks that we are not doing this year because our vines are young. Normally, the leaves near the grapes would be pulled off to expose the fruit to more sunlight. Also, some of the fruit could be dropped to encourage the remaining fruit to ripen. This is called crop thinning. We will do these activities next year when we plan to get our first viable crop.

Here are a few recent photos.

Trunked vine

Grapes on a Pinot Noir vine

Trunked vine

The work continues...

noreply@blogger.com (Beth and Chris) — Mon, 05 May 2014 19:50:00 +0000

Chris has made excellent progress on the trellis and irrigation system. The newly planted areas now have a trellis in place! Next he needs to finish hooking up the irrigation lines.

First, and most importantly, the vines are doing well! The newly planted vines are coming along. You can see in the picture below that there are bamboo stick holding the vines in place. This is part of the training.

These photos show the different between 5/3 and 4/13. All of the metal posts are in place and the main irrigation line is run. Next the irrigation lines must be run down each row with a dripper at each plant.

5/3/14

4/13/14

Chris was finishing up the trenching for the north facing hill.

The vineyard looks beautiful right now. One element of the cover crop is crimson clover. It blooms this time of year with a deep red flower. We were excited to see it since we did not know it was part of the mix.

A beautiful day for post pounding

noreply@blogger.com (Beth and Chris) — Mon, 21 Apr 2014 16:53:00 +0000

The new vines are in the ground, but the trellis is not yet in place. Building the trellis is time consuming and labor intensive. We hired someone to pound in the end posts with their tractor, but all of the metal posts (over 500!) had to be pounded in by hand. Once the posts are in, the wires must be run and the irrigation must be installed. It will take several weeks to complete the project.

The placement of each post was meticulously determined to ensure the vineyard is accurately laid out. A string from end post to end post north to south, and another string east to west, is used to mark the post placement. Once the spot is established, the post is pounded down to an exact height. It is important that the location and height be very accurate so that the wire and the vines match up as planned.

Here are some pictures of the new are in the south east corner of the vineyard.

Metal posts are being installed for the rows

A row in the middle is completed first to help with measurements

View from the south side of the block

The block just north of the house site already has the poles in place.

Panoramic from the home site. The vineyard will be about 40 feet from the house.

New vine checkup

noreply@blogger.com (Beth and Chris) — Wed, 09 Apr 2014 22:24:00 +0000

Last week started with 2,500 vines in pots delivered to the property, and it ended with all of those vines in the ground! It has now been about a week and I finally got a chance to go out and check out the new plantings for myself.

A majority of the new vines were Pinot Noir, but there was also some Sauvignon Blanc. Some of the new vines have already sprouted leaves, however most of them have only buds. Soon all of the vines will be flourishing.

Pinot Noir vine that already has leaves

Pinot Noir vine with buds

Now that the new vines are in the ground, Chris will have to start work on the trellis. As it turns out, building the trellis is a very time consuming process with many steps. It all starts with the end posts. The 8' posts will be pounded into the ground sometime this week. Each post must be pounded down and secured with a thick wire and earth anchor. Once the posts are in the ground, the process of pulling and securing the many wires will begin. The first one to be added is the sprinkler wire; this is the wire that will secure the irrigation lines. The second is the fruiting wire. It will be used to help secure the young vines while they grow; later it will be used to hold up the fruit. The upper wires include the canopy wires (2 sets) and the wind wire. In addition to the wire, the irrigation will have to be extended to the new rows.

The pruning over winter resulted in a few vines being 'trunked' and most being 'two budded'. Trunking a vine is pruning the vine to allow fruit growth the following season. If the vine was thick enough at the end of last season, it was trunked. Those that were not thick enough yet were two budded. This pruning technique reduces the size of the vine to promote more root growth. These vines will not be allowed to produce fruit this year. The fruit will be cut off so that the energy is not wasted on ripening the grapes.

Trunked vine

Two-budded vine

A post with the lower set of canopy wires installed

Over 2,500 vines to plant!

noreply@blogger.com (Beth and Chris) — Mon, 07 Apr 2014 17:33:00 +0000

The vines have finally arrived. We ordered over 2,500 vines that have to be planted this spring. Some of the vines are already 2 years old while others are 1 year old. No matter what the age, all of them have to go into the ground on the vineyard.

With the help of at least 10 others, Chris got all of the new vines planted. The bulk of the work was done in 1.5 days. It is hard to see the new vines in these photos, but trust me, they are there! The black dots you see are the empty pots. Those have all been cleaned up.

Spring chores

noreply@blogger.com (Beth and Chris) — Fri, 04 Apr 2014 21:16:00 +0000

The spring rain has brought the vineyard back to life! This spring is a busy time; the normal spring maintenance has to start and the vineyard has to be prepared for the new vines. These chores will mean a lot of time spent on the property...at least by Chris. I will mostly be home int he warm dry house with Jensen.

Layout - With approximately 2,500 new vines due to arrive this spring, one of the first tasks is to complete the layout. Chris and I went out one damp weekend to get started. Preparing the layout entails accurately measuring between existing plants and the new plant location. A small bamboo stick has to be placed in the ground at each spot you intend to plant a new vine. It is a somewhat tedious task. We managed to finish a small block over 4 or 5 hours. Over the following weekends, Chris continued work on the layout with hired labor. They finished up much faster than we would have without the help!

Mowing - The cover crop in the vineyard has definitely started to grow again. Farmer Chris spent some time recently to mow it. It looked so nice when it was done.

Weed control - In addition to mowing, weed control is an important spring task. I got to play around on the ATV to do some of the weed spraying. I did the fence line. Chris did the in row spraying that will keep the weeds from growing near the vines.

Trellis construction - The trellis for the existing plants is missing some of the support wires called the catch wires. These are used to catch the canopy when it starts to grow larger throughout the season. There is a lower set and a higher set. Chris has been working hard with the help of hired labor to install the catch wires. Soon he will also have to start work on the trellis for the new plantings.

As you can tell, there is a lot to do on the vineyard. This will be a very busy growing season. We hope to get a small crop off of the sauvignon blanc vines, but the we will drop the fruit from all of the other vines to encourage root growth.

Keep an eye on the blog for the latest updates!

Cool photo

noreply@blogger.com (Beth and Chris) — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 03:54:00 +0000

I took this photo on the property last weekend. I liked it so I thought I would share...

Foggy days

noreply@blogger.com (Beth and Chris) — Thu, 23 Jan 2014 04:33:00 +0000

This winter has not been exactly what we expected. We were told that winter in the Willamette Valley includes consistent light rain with temperatures in the low 40s. So far this winter does not follow that pattern; it has been fairly dry with many foggy mornings followed by sunny days. One recent day on the vineyard started out with heavy fog, but by the end of the day, the sun was shining on Old Wagon Road Vineyard.

Winter pruning

noreply@blogger.com (Beth and Chris) — Thu, 23 Jan 2014 04:23:00 +0000

Each winter a major effort goes into pruning the vineyard. The vines in Old Wagon Road Vineyard are still very young. These young vines are pruned all the way down to two or three buds. Each vine ends up being just a few inches high. It is a drastic amount of growth to trim off, but the trunk is not yet large enough to support a larger plant with grapes. The grapes that grow this summer will be cut off to allow the plant's energy to focus on root growth. It will take one more growing season for the trunks and roots to grow before the vines will be trained and the grapes will be retained.

It is a bit hard to see, but there is a pruned vine tied to the bamboo stick

Gewurztraminer

noreply@blogger.com (Beth and Chris) — Tue, 29 Oct 2013 15:23:00 +0000

We are enjoying some very good weather for October in the Willamette Valley. It has been fairly warm and dry. It is perfect weather to finish up some tasks on the vineyard.

We spent some time last weekend planting a couple hundred Gewurztraminer vines. Normally I let Chris handle the manual labor, but I got my hands dirty and helped out with the planting. We were lucky enough to recruit Johnny and Sammy again. Johnny was a great help...Sammy was still a dog.

We had purchased these vines a while ago and they were stored away until we could plant them. Unfortunately, some of the vines did not do so well. We had about a 30% loss rate. The good vines were planted in the north west corner of the property. It is hard to see them in this picture, but trust me, they are there.

Here is an updated shot of the vines we planted a couple of weeks ago. They are not doing much right now, but come spring, they should be more active.

If you have been reading the blog for a while, you know that one major challenge is the access. We currently access the property via an easement through our neighbor's property. The area we have to cross is used as a horse pasture; the gates on each side and the horses in the road make this a less than ideal path.

A while ago, we found that there is an old county road that we could finish that would make our access much easier. We have finally started on this work! I will post some pictures when I get them.

Fall planting

noreply@blogger.com (Beth and Chris) — Sat, 12 Oct 2013 16:33:00 +0000

It is fall in the Willamette Valley. The trees are changing colors, the temperatures are lowering and the rain will be here soon. We were lucky last weekend to have a crystal clear day.

We were not out there just for fun...it was time for us to plan some more vines! We spent last weekend planting about 300 sauvignon blanc vines. Fortunately, our new friends Jesse, Johnny, and Sammy (their adorable puppy) came out to help. Fall is a good time to plant the vines because they will benefit from the wet winter. The picture below is about half of the SB vines we had to plant this fall.

Johnny worked ahead with the auger to prep the holes for the vines.

Jesse and Chris (with little help from Sammy) planted each vine by hand. It might look like Chris was just 'supervising', but he really did plant some, too.

Sammy enjoyed running around the vineyard searching for little critters.

The existing plants are doing well. The Pinot Noir is still in grow tubes. They will likely stay on for another growing season. Chris has done a great job getting the weeds under control and the cover crop has started to grow. You can see in these pictures that the rows have just dirt with the vines and the alleys have green cover crop growing.

The existing sauvignon blanc vines are doing very well! It is a bit hard to tell in this picture, but all of the plants have grown a lot since they were planted. We might even get a small crop of SB to play with next year!

In addition to the SB, we have about 80 more Pinot Noir plants in 1 gallon pots waiting to go in the ground. These will probably not be planted until next spring.

Late summer progress

noreply@blogger.com (Beth and Chris) — Tue, 10 Sep 2013 03:41:00 +0000

Our first set of vines have now been in the ground for several months. It is late summer, and in a matter of weeks, the vines will be hibernating for the winter. Overall, the plants look good. We are excited about the progress made so far this year on the vineyard.

This first pictures is possibly the most exciting picture to date of the vines...it is the first crop! OK, it is a bit early to expect a good crop, but having a few grapes on a few plants is still exciting. These pinot noir grapes were very tasty as a mid-afternoon snack.

Grapes!

Farmer Chris

And here is an updated picture of me and Jensen.

If you plant them, they will grow

noreply@blogger.com (Beth and Chris) — Fri, 24 May 2013 15:34:00 +0000

There is a lot of activity in the vineyard these days. This spring was our first planting and now the trellis and irrigation system have to be installed to support the new vines.

The vines have been in the ground for a few weeks. They started out rather small. However, with the help of the grow tubes, the vines are growing very well. In many cases, they are now growing out of the tubes!

The first step to toward completing the trellis is installing the wooden end posts. Each end post has to be pounded into the ground using a tractor attachment. About half of the posts are in now. The next step will be to run the wire and add the irrigation equipment.

It's a vineyard!

noreply@blogger.com (Beth and Chris) — Mon, 06 May 2013 02:32:00 +0000

Our once bare land in Carlton, Oregon is now a vineyard! There is just over 3 acres planted and it looks amazing! The vines are a mix of 1 year old and 2 year old plants. They are all now in grow tubes. The trellis and the irrigation system will be installed soon.

Here are some shots of the vineyard:

This is overlooking the vineyard from the house site.

It is hard to see, but Mt. Jefferson is off in the distance.

Each of the grow tubes has a vine in it. It is hard to see, but there is a vine at the bottom.

Here is the vine with no grow tube. In just a few years, that vine will produce quality grapes for us to make into wine!

The real purpose of the trip was to complete the solar panel installation. There are now 13 solar panels on the roof of the shed for the well and irrigation system.

This is me (Beth) and 5-month-old Jensen.

Infrastructure first

noreply@blogger.com (Beth and Chris) — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 21:38:00 +0000

I thought this post would include beautiful pictures of our newly planted vineyard. Chris went up there for a week to see how things were progressing and to do some work on the solar setup. As it turns out, there were other tasks that had to be done in the vineyard before the vines were planted. The focus of the week was infrastructure; the solar setup had to be modified and the water lines for the irrigation system had to be laid.

Chris worked hard to install 8 new solar panels to support the irrigation system. There was already one panel on the roof of the shed to provide power for the well pump. There will be an additional 2 panels installed on the next trip.

The other big task for the week was to install the water lines from the shed to the vineyard site. This was approximately 1600 feet of trenching and pipe installation. The photos below show the trench from start (near the shed) to finish (at the valve box).

While the vines were not planted before Chris left for home, they were delivered to the property. The vines have since been planted. I will be sure to get pictures when we go to visit in a couple of weeks. In the mean time, here is a photo of the un-planted vines. It may not look like that many now, but this spring we will have around 3 acres of vines planted!

Now that the vines are planted, the trellis will be built and the drip lines will be installed. Check back at the end of April for the latest update.

Pre-planting pictures

noreply@blogger.com (Beth and Chris) — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 19:08:00 +0000

We are just days away from planting the first few acres of vines! Chris has gone up to Oregon to work on the irrigation system and planting. It will be hard work, but he is up for it.

I will post more in the next few weeks. Here are a few pictures he took on the property.

A truck with some of the vines. The area to the right will be planted this year.

A shot of the hillside that will be planted soon.

This is facing the east.

This is taken from the home site. The hill to the north will be planted this year.

Almost time...

noreply@blogger.com (Beth and Chris) — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 22:11:00 +0000

There will be a big change on the property in the coming weeks. The first few acres of grapes will be planted.

Before the vines are put in the ground, the final prep work must be completed. Chris and our vineyard manager have been working on the layout. They have planned the block placement and which types will be planted in each block.

Chris will take a trip up there for the planting. We are both anxious to see how the property looks now and how it will look with vines in the ground. Check back soon for pictures.

Eventually, irrigation and the trellis will be installed.