The vineyard is located on the eastern-most part of our property, across a small seasonal creek. The vineyard's terroir is gradual sloping to the west, with mostly typical deep glacial till soil. The actual location averages about 200 feet in elevation and is about in the exact geographic middle of Anderson Island. The vineyard is protected on all sides by hills that lie between us and the Puget Sound. We believe that warm, micro-climate exists and will work to confirm this as the vineyard matures. We are estimating the initial vineyard area to be about two acres with possible expansion into another acre, to be shared with Christmas and fruit trees.
The most immediate recognizable feature of the vineyard is the deer fence that surrounds the entire growing area. Without the approximate 8 foot fence, the island deer would no doubt feast on the grapevines in no time. The initial vineyard consists of 33 rows of vines, with an average row length of about 300 feet. We have approximately 2700 vines (I haven't taken an exact count yet) vineyard. The rows are oriented north-south as much as possible in order to capture the sun as it moves across the South Puget Sound sky. The gradual slope should aid in draining cold air away from the vines, down into the creek bed area.
The vines will grow using the Vertical Shoot Positioning (VSP) system, the most common method used in Western Washington. During the winter of 2009/2010 we installed the trellis system. A fun job pounding in over 500 steel line posts into glacial till (meaning ROCKY) soil. The fruiting and catch wires have all be run as well. We are both looking forward to more normal vineyard chores, rather than the actual installation of vines and trellising. Eventually we plan on building a small warming hut along side the vineyard, so that winter chores will be a little more pleasant.
What grapes have we planted? Well, after much going back and forth we settled on a combination of varieties that we like, that we think have commercial possibilities, and have somewhat of a proven track record for Western Washington. So we will concentrate for now on Chardonnay, Regent (a German red variety), Pinot Noir, and Siegerebbe (for a possible sweet wine). We also have two rows of a Austrian red variety called St. Laurent that we will try. Not sure what the final makeup o the vineyard will be in five years or so, but that's part of the fun in starting a new operation.
