As some of you will have noticed or read about, we are installing a new well. This should give us a reliable water source for irrigating and supplying water to the tasting room, winery and residences. We had several occasions last year where we could not water the grapes nearly enough and we lost several almond trees. That definitely affected our grape production. We expect the new well to come online in the next couple of weeks, just in time for spring watering. We will do more rain-dancing in the meantime.
As we improve the availability of water, we are redesigning the plumbing and replacing many of the irrigation pipes to improve delivery of water to the grapes. We want to be able to tune the irrigation to specific parts of the vineyard to optimize watering. We have several different soil types and sun exposures, even varying row by row. This sometimes means we waste water in some places in order to get enough water to thirsty plants in other rows. So we are working to ensure we give each plant the amount of water it needs and no more.
Developing the vineyard to realize its potential is a long-term project. A journey of 100 miles starts with the first step.
Watch for pictures on our social media sites and be prepared to celebrate the start of another
vintage!
Salut!