First "rights" to plant

 

Nude parcel, almost ready to become a small vineyard...

 Dear Friends,

This year, Santa came a bit earlier as I received yesterday my first rights (51 acres - 1,3 acres) to plant. It still seems a bit surreal for me to think that I am going to farm grapes in Bandol but the reality is that this should actually  happen, sometimes... 

33 acres of Mourvèdre and 18 acres of Cinsault
in our "vine portofolio"

Sometimes because before planting vineyards and considering that you have the rights for, there are other obstacles to climb. First, I need to make sure I can buy on time those baby vines. Most of the good nurseries actually work with one year order as they customize the rootstock on your soil and your farming methods. As far as I am concerned, I need quite resisting rootstock since I will totally dryfarming our vines. Moreover, I plan to plant quite dense in order to create "competition" with vines around and oblige their roots to plunge down as deep as they can.

I therefore had anticipated this and already reserved some baby vines last September but at this point, I am not sure I will be able to get the rights plants.

Soil analysis of our parcel

 

Also, planting vines need to be done on a soil that is ready for this. The parcel that is supposed to be welcoming the new vines is quite ready I did not have to remove any trees but I would like to farm some crop before I plant, in order to amend naturally the soil with natural organic nutriments. The problem is that we are in the middle of winter and that, the deadline to plant is May. I now need to find the right crop (that I could seed in February and harvest in April), having in mind my soil analysis... If you have any inputs, they will be welcome.

A la prochaine...

Jean-Marc 

 

Comments

[Rédigé par : Bill Facker]

Aloha Jean-Mark .. possibly the grapes AND a crop could go in simultanieously .. with the crop between the grapes for the first year or two. Congratulations on receiving your first "rights" ! Aloha, Bill

[Rédigé par : JULES GREER - PUERTO VALLARTA, MEXICO]

HI HONEY,

CLOVER, LUPINE, POPPIES. Lots of info on internet for cover crops of vineyards.

XOXO - MOM

[Rédigé par : Ido]

Congratulations! I knew Grapes are difficult, that they need special soil, etc. Even that, we planted two little plants in early april, they are still alive, hopefully they live thru this coming winter, I hope to learn a lot from your blog. thank you for sharing!

[Rédigé par : Jean-Marc Espinasse]

Thanks a lot guys for your inputs. This project is a lot of fun.

[Rédigé par : Sandy Vann]

bon chance JM ...
we are sure of your success!
Sandy and Terry