Ordering Replacement Vines

The work in the vineyard was on pause as the holidays approached. We're still not back outdoors but we are now researching and deciding what type of vines to order to replace the ones that did not make it in their first year after planting. Since so many plants died, we did a bit of rethinking about what varieties to order as replacements. My husband did all of the research and we discussed the merits of the choices and here is what we came up with:

• Auxerrois FPS1
• Auxerrois FPS2
• Chenin Blanc ENTAV 982
• Chardonnay ENTAV 76
• Chardonnay ENTAV 96
• Cabernet Sauvignon ENTAV 412
• Cabernet Franc ENTAV 214
• Cabernet Franc ENTAV 327
• Barbera VCR 15
• Barbera VCR 19

The rootstock for all of these plants will once again be 101-14 Mgt (Millardet et det Grasset) which we used for our original planting done in the spring of 2013. We researched what rootstock would work best in our area and one document that came in handy was the University of California Rootstock Selection, a guide written by L. Peter Christensen. Our rootstock choice, 101-14 Mgt, is a cross between Vitis riparia x Vitis rupestrus and has the following attributes:

Phylloxera resistance	Nematode resistance: Root knot Dagger (Xiphinema index)	Drought	Wet Soil	Salinity
High	Medium high Medium	Low-medium	Medium	Medium
Lime	Influence on scion	Mineral nutrition	Soil adaptation	Ease of propagation
Low-Medium	Medium	N, K: med.–high P, Mg, Ca: low Zn: med.	Moist, clay soils	High

We will once again be working with Mercier Nursery in California. The time to order is now because they will begin the process of preparing the grafts. Since these will be custom tall grafted vines, they will take 18 months to grow and we will receive the dormant grafts ready for planting in the spring of 2016.