Planting Day 1

Yesterday was the first of the weekend planting day festivities. We arrived on the land around 7:30, our hunter was just on his way out of the property. The vines were ready and waiting and the start time was 9 a.m. The morning was a little damp because it had rained overnight, which was perfect for the Auxerrois vines that we planted yesterday. My husband made one last check on the holes and removed any soil that caved in.

The first people to arrive was Team Long Pond. But within a few minutes of that, my friend with the donuts, coffee, and fresh fruit came and we set up the under the blue tent.
In no time, our full crew arrived and we were ready to begin planting. We started with a short demo of the process which began with forming teams of two. One person would hold the vine and shovel in some soil and the other person would tamp the soil and the process was repeated until the hole was filled. In going down the alley, a vine was distributed to two rows simultaneously and in this way, we planted Cabernet franc clone 327 in the farthest east row and Cabernet franc clone 214 in the next row. Everyone congregated at the beginning of the row experimenting with this procedure of planting a grapevine. Here is a view from the foreman/tractor driver with our morning crew.

After the crew was confident enough of the process, what we did was to have the teams of two take one section which consisted of 5 vines from one line post to another. After planting 5 vines, each team of two was able to leapfrog another team that was planting the next 5 vines. Psychologically, it felt like progress, being able to leapfrog over other teams planting vines. Mother Nature was also being benevolent: the sun was shining, a gentle breeze was blowing and the vineyard birds were chirping.

We were able to plant the Cabernet franc, the next two rows of Cabernet sauvignon clone 412 and began the next two rows of Chardonnay ENTAV clone 96 or approximately 1000 vines before our lunch break!
After lunch, we finished up the half rows of Chardonnay and planted another two rows of Chardonnay clone 96 before the day ended. In all, we planted all of the Cab franc, Cab sav and Chardonnay clone 96. What an amazing crew we have!