Field grafting is a wonderful process. Taking the science of grape vine biology, combined with skillful use of knife, tape, and paint, can transition a vine from one type of grape to another with only 1 lost season.
To be Purple Cow means to risk failure by trying something new. We can't just be new once, we have to continuously innovate to stay ahead of copy-cats. Tempranillo is fabulous and we expect it to succeed, but we have to be starting a new project right away because others are already moving into the Tempranillo space and it takes many years to "vet" a new varietal/terrior idea.
It's time we migrated our experimental vineyard over to new trials. We are so confident in our new selection that Syrah, Cab Franc, and Tempranillo, all on 101-14, will be removed from our vineyard. The Tempranillo obviously lives on via the transition to a commercial product on a different rootstock. The Sryah was restarted last year as an experiment on a different rootstock. Cab Franc will be abandoned.
What's going in? That's the fun. We're not so naive as to think it will remain a secret, but we're not going to be the ones to publish it. Come by and visit, ask about it, and see if you can pry the information out of us. A few have done so.
Comments