May 2012 Update on Tall Grafts at Mercier

We feel very fortunate that we have Mercier Vineyards working on creating our tall grafted vines. Recently, Sebastian sent us photos of how the tall grafts were doing.

We had asked Mercier if they could provide us with rootstock of approximately 30-inches. We were a little concerned that the rootstock would be crooked but Sebastian assured us that he would employ only the best grapevine chiropractors so that the rootstock would be as straight as possible. Approximately 6 inches of the rootstock, including the newly emerging roots will be planted in the soil, but the rest of the rootstock, approximately 24-inches will be part of the tall graft that will be the trunk of the vine. Our research on tall grafted vines began with a visit with our state viticulturalist, William Nail in October of 2010. He showed us some of his tall grafted Chardonnay growing at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station’s Lockwood Farm in Hamden. The tall grafts that Dr. Nail used came from Rob Russell at Westport Rivers. A 2009 progress report written by Dr. Nail can be found here: Effects of Graft Union Height on Vine Performance and Winter Survival.

To expand our knowledge of how tall grafts perform in our area, we met with two viticulturalists in our area, the Southeastern New England AVA who have tall grafts planted in their vineyards. Close Encounter with Tall/High Grafts was our first field trip to see tall grafted vines in 2011. Next came a visit to Westport Rivers to meet with Rob Russell. We visited Mercier Vineyards for the first time in September, 2011, A Visit to Mercier Grapevine Nursery and again in January, 2012 The Clones are Coming.
The photo to the right shows the newly emerging leaves of the scion on our tall grafted vine in the Mercier Nursery. Sebastian and Mercier have kept us in the loop regarding the progress of the tall grafted vines. They have answered all our questions, provided us with additional information on tall grafts, and sent us photos of our tall grafts-in-the-making. We are confident that our vines are in good hands at Mercier!