Old Wagon Road Vineyard: First trip as land owners

The first step in creating our vineyard and winery was to purchase the property. With that behind us, it was time to start planning the next steps, including site preparation.

In October, we took another trip up to Oregon to visit the lot and meet with various consultants and contractors.

We thought it was best to hire a vineyard managers to facilitate the first few acres. A vineyard manager will help with decisions and coordinate the labor. We set up meetings with 2 managers. We wanted to get their impressions of the lot and their thoughts for moving forward.

Our first meeting was with Simon. He has years of experience and is currently managing 6 or 7 other vineyards in the area. We walked around the property for quite a while chatting about the potential vineyard. He was excited for the project and said he thought it was a "slam dunk".

The second meeting was with Jessica. She is a local PhD student that runs a vineyard management company as well. She missed our original meeting time and was late to the second meeting; not a good start. We talked with her for a while, but we decided she was not what we were looking for in a vineyard manager.

We decided to work with Simon. We were impressed with his knowledge and we like his interest in the project. He will consult with us during the planning phase and then manage the acreage as we plant it. We talked about starting small with 2 acres and then adding an acre to 2 a year. This means we can clear the land slowly to delay some of the up front expenses.

We also met with two excavation contractors for quotes to clear the land. Currently, the land is used for timber. It has been logged recently, and the logging company left it a mess. To clear the land, we need to cut down any remaining trees and remove the stumps. All of the leftovers have to be moved and burned. The bare ground has to be ripped (a big machine drags a spike through it to remove roots) and plowed before planting. In addition to the vineyard land clearing, we want quotes to build the road, clear the future home site, and trench for the power line. Chris would like to do this work himself, but the first phase has to be done in spring 2012 and we will not be there yet...I just need to keep him from buying an excavator!

Part of the area we want to clear

Existing home that will be removed

The other contractors we met with were for the well pump and the shed we plan to build near the well. Our plan is to buy a water tank to store a few thousand gallons of water. The tank will be stored in the shed with a line that will run to the house. The house is a few years off, but the shed and water tank can be put in anytime.

In between meetings, we spent some more time walking around the lot. To our surprise, we found a variety of fruit trees including apple and pear. I was hoping to see some wildlife...and Bambi showed up! Deer are cute now, but once the vines are planted, they will be our enemies.