Way back in 2013, we hired a crew to laser plant our vineyard with 6,800 vines. They consisted of 5 rows of Auxerrois, 17 rows of Chenin Blanc and 14 rows of Chardonnay, split between two clones, 76 and 96.
Due to a number of conditions during 2013 and 2014 which I wrote about in
90% at the School of Hard Knocks, when spring 2014 arrived, we found out that more than 90% of our vines had died.
It was a sad day, but my husband was undeterred and made plans to replant the vineyard. For custom grafted vines, it takes 18 months between the time the order is placed to when the vines are received during the following spring. For us, because we ordered the replacement vines in 2014, they did not show up until the spring of 2016. So, 2/3rds of our vineyard was actually planted (replanted) in 2016.
The vines that did the best to survive the initial planting was the approximately 450 Chenin Blanc vines, our "old vines". While they soldiered on to provide us with some fruit in 2015 and beyond, these old vines were ready to be replaced and this is where we find ourselves.
The following chart shows where the various "holes" are that need to be planted with new vines:
The Chenin Blanc fillers will be planted in the area where the original vines were located. We don't appear to have lost any of the vines that we replanted in 2016 and 2017.
Although it took from 2013 to where we are now, a photo taken in August, 2020 shows that our vineyard is thriving as we learn more about how to manage our vines using the appropriate viticultural practices.
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