Our Estate Vineyard - Eager DIrt
Sun, soil, water, people. Of earth and us.
Breggo sits on 203 acres of heaven, halfway between Boonville and Philo, in the heart of Anderson Valley. About 30% of the property constitutes what winegrowers might call "usable" ground: islands of open grassy slopes, on reasonably stable clay-loam soils, with gentle southeastern exposures.
The rest is wilderness.
I bought the property in 2000, with every intention of planting a vineyard. Some folks dream of becoming doctors or professors, rock stars or Presidents of the United States. For as long as I can remember, I dreamt of being a farmer. And this has become my place. I proposed to Ana on this place, and she agreed to marry me and make it ours.
In the early days we mowed and tilled, tore out old sheep fencing and bought new deer fencing, amended soils with lime and compost, we built a pond. We even put a deposit down for vines in early-2001, right about the time that the market for wine grapes slid into the abyss. Then we screeched to a halt. The bank du-jour stopped believing we could make it as farmers on the five-year plan. So we waited.
In late-2004, with the grape market still in the doldrums, we decided to make another run at the winegrower business. A different bank warmed up to the idea of the two-year plan: to start a winery with someone else's fruit. We called the owners of the most renowned vineyards in Anderson Valley, and soon landed fruit from Savoy, Ferrington, Donnelly Creek, and Wiley Vineyards. We invented Breggo.
Breggo built an impressive line-up of cold-climate whites: Sauvignon blanc and Gewürztraminer from Ferrington, Chardonnay from Savoy, and Pinot gris from Wiley Vineyard. Of course, we didn’t ignore the reds. We make more Pinot noir than all other varietals combined. We reside, after all, in Pinot heaven. When we offered those wines to the public, people bought them. Yes, we love you people.
By now, “we” means Breggo, a collective effort of proprietors, consulting winemaker, cellar crew, day laborers, tasting room staff, the most amazing collection of growers in Mendocino County. All became participants, advisors, interested parties in Breggo.
With extraordinary fruit sources behind our new venture, I felt comfortable leaving most of our estate "vineyard" ground fallow, a place for deer, boar, and wild turkeys to forage under the watchful gaze of foxes, mountain lions, and the occasional armed and hungry homo-sapien.
Every Breggo bottle purchased and consumed brought us one step closer to dotting our hills with vines. In the summer of 2007, we started preparing the hill overlooking the highway and winery for vineyards. We ripped and drained, amended and smoothed again. We planted 200 pounds of seed per acre, installed frost protection, and watched the cover crop grow all winter. In June and July of 2008, we put vines in the ground.
Vines need sunlight, soil, water, and skilled people in order to thrive. We think of all of these resources as precious and scarce.
As the vineyard progresses, I’ll say more on what we decided to do… then how we actually did it. Call it a blog. For now I can say we put 26,000 vines in the ground last summer, and 25,000 survived. I feel humbled, lucky, and a fair bit of trepidation as we enter what looks like a cruel spring.
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