Nursery Choices Matter

As a rule, I don't put anything negative on my blog, preferring to stick to the factual or the positive aspects of viticulture and enology. But, I'm going to have to make an exception for this topic. This year, we were in our last phase of replanting the original vineyard we planted in 2013 which consisted of 6800 vines. In the devastating winter of 2014, we lost 6300 vines and began our replanting odyssey. This year was to be the conclusion of the replanting, to get to a full vineyard once more.

• In March, 2017, we learned from our nursery that instead of the 2200 vines we ordered, they were only able to fulfill 1500 of the total order
• We asked for shipment to arrive on May 3rd. Our numerous requests for a tracking number, went unheeded. The nursery shipped our vines without a tracking number, saying that it would arrive by UPS. The shipment arrived on May 1st via FedEx. It was only by chance that my husband was on the land to receive the shipment. No bill of lading was provided. Nine boxes of plants were unloaded and stored in a refrigerated truck.
• Upon opening the box labeled "Auxerrois" we found mold on the scion and the roots:

When we contacted our nursery, they said that they have done tests on that mold and it should not be a problem. We planted the Auxerrois on May 7th.

• On the third day of planting, we opened up the last box of the vines we ordered which was Chenin Blanc ENTAV clone 982. The box only contained 175 vines. On our invoice, it stated that we were to receive 300 vines, and were charged for 300 vines. Because the vines were in bundles of 25, we felt that perhaps the nursery didn't ship the last box of Chenin Blanc. My husband contacted the nursery and eventually, we received information that there is a new invoice that will be sent to us amending the 300 Chenin Blanc ENTAV 982 to 175 Chenin Blanc ENTAV 982. No other explanation was given.
• Furthermore, when we opened the box of Chenin Blanc, this is what we found, more mold:

• The vines that we received failed to meet our specifications for length of rootstock to the graft union. The vines came in all manner of sizes:

• It has been nearly a month since we planted our vines and this is what we found for the Auxerrois and the Chenin Blanc 982 that came covered with mold. Out of 275 Auxerrois provided, 94 failed to bud, a 34% failure rate. Out of 175 Chenin Blanc ENTAV clone 982 provided, 77 failed to bud, a 44% failure rate. As a comparison, the other vines that did not come covered with mold, i.e. the Barbera and Chenin Blanc FPS-1 have all budded out.

Note to self: Nursery choices matter.