New vineyard construction starts

Our first project of 2013 is the new fence that will keep the goats out of what will be the new the 'river' vineyard. We got started by cutting down 5 or so tall red oaks that died in the drought of 2011.  Today, we started replacing the old horse fence with new goat fence from the horse pen to the Northwest property line.

Notaviva Vineyard

I came across the Notaviva vineyard (Virginia) while searching for trellis supplies.  It doesn't sell any trellis supplies, nor use the kind of trellis I want, but it is a nice blog and documents both a love story and the construction of a vineyard.  Que Bueno!

Exploring the river bank

I have lived here since 1997, but never explored the river bank.  Based on our eastern neighbors rock work, it seemed there was a rock ledge about half way down the bank.  Today, I took my trusty chain saw and cut a path through the brush, trying to follow that outcrop along our heavily wooded river bank.

I started at the eastern side of the property, where the neighbors had built rock walls along the bank.  These walls generally followed outcrops that had always been visible.  Our bank has always been wooded, and devoid of obvious outcrops, but I could make out the general form of the outcrop's lip. Above the lip, the bank had only a shallow slope.  Below it, the bank was much steeper.  As I made a trail through the brush, I noticed junipers seemed to sit right on the lip.  All I had to do was cut a trail just up the bank from this line of junipers.

It turned out the line ran all the way from our eastern property line to the western corner.  In fact, just on the other side of the property western line, another outcrop emerges from the river bank. There is also a 2nd lower bank that seems to emerge about 2/3s of the way to the western property line. This one is about 6 feet below the first.

A very interesting trail!

Growing Degree Days - Comparisions

I came across a nice Growing Degree Days calculator on the Weather Channel.

Here is a comparison of the Fort Worth - Dallas, Tx area to other wine growing cities.  As you can see, Texas is much like North Africa in terms of 'growing degree days'.  Central Texas gets 30 inches of rain.  Tunis gets 18.

Pergola Tendone (tent)

Tendone or Pergola Abruzzo

The wire scaffolding is from 6 to 7 feet high. From vertical trunks, 3 to 5 canes branch off horizontally and form a continuous cover over the ground.  The scaffolding rests on iron or concrete poles.  The canes are arranged radially for a length of about 6 feet.  Canes are productive for 2 or 3 years, then pruned away for younger canes.

 Here is how it might look.  This is from the Abruzzo region, immediately east of Rome.

This form of viticulture is famous for the quantity of grapes it produces:

Sicily's Giuseppe Guastella of Mazzarrone in Catania with his Victoria grapes. This production is obtained in polyethylene sheeted greenhouses without artificial heating.  The sheeting causes elevated temperatures inside the greenhouse allowing early budding, flowering and ripening.

Here is another tendone.  This one in the Basilicata region, just north of Sicily.  Note the shade.  For an organic Texas grower, all that shade is 












This is an ancient growing style, and has been criticized by some agricultural specialists who favor industrialized techniques developed in cooler climates such as France, California and Australia for Vertical Positioned Shoots (VSP) trellis variants.
  
Advertised advantages of VSP over tendone include:
1. More resistant to adverse conditions such as fog and high humidity during the harvest
2. Higher sugar content at maturity occurred due to a lower yield per plant
3. More uniform maturation
4. Ease in mechanizing vineyard operations

This is a matter of some controversy.  See my 'VSP or Pergola' post or Maurizo Gily's 'Demise of the Italian Pergola Trellis' (which is optimistic about the Italian pergola's future).

Pergola Romagnola

 This might be clearer (from wikipedia):

Ok.  These are both too abstract, so here is photo from Leone Conti winery is located in the hills above Faenza.  Unlike the Veronese pergola that lifts the arbor, the 'pergola romagnola' uses suspension wires.

Trentina Pergola

Trentina Pergola

Comativ (seems to be a manufacturer of metal and prestressed concrete poles for agriculture)

Here is an alternative version: