Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Old vines

I stood in a pre-phylloxera vineyard today for the first time in my life. 130 year old vines growing on the roots evolution gave them. They are protected from the root louse by 6 feet of sand and gravel, an inhospitable medium for the louse larvae.
Marcus Eguren is standing among the oenological equivalent of a herd of unicorns.
The other vine shown is an old Garnacha that has died so now the American Vitus Labrusca rootstock it was grafted onto has sent up shoots and some concord grapes. Very weird.
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2 comments:

  1. Sharon VaralloSeptember 11, 2012 at 7:04 PM

    LOVE the postings, even though we are a little sad because we don't understand what you mean by "penological equivalent of a herd of unicorns." We will drink some wine to get over it. Glad to hear you are having a wonderful time.

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  2. WallytheWineGuySeptember 12, 2012 at 5:59 AM

    I corrected "oenological ". These vines are unicorns in that they shouldn't even exist.

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