The Hellanback Ranch Vineyard will eventually include 4  vineyard sections (there are now 3 planted).  After much research and consideration, we have planted syrah, petit verdot, merlot, cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc.  The climate is generally hot and dry, with mild to cool evenings.  The soil is generally made up of decomposing granite (DG) and red clay.  Irrigation comes from one of the two deep wells on the ranch property.  The water coming from these wells was tested to be "drinking water" quality.

The 4th vineyard is scheduled to be planted next year (2009).  It is a North-facing slope of approximately one acre.  We are still thinking about what to plant there.

We finally planted the "big vineyard" this year.  This shows what things looked like just before we began actually planting.  This is at the North end of the vineyard, looking South.  You can see where next year's vineyard will go - the brown area off in the distance.

If you look carefully, you will see little grape buds on these plants.  These are the syrah that we planted in March of 2007.  Although we specifically cultivated and trained the vines to produce grapes in the second year, we were still thrilled to actually see them!

This is a group of our volunteers.  This job took the most time - 1300 tubes had to be assembled.  Around 26 people showed up to help us get the vineyard planted.  We formed teams - diggers, planters, stakers and tubers.

These are the diggers.  We've planted vines 8 feet apart and will train them to form a double cordon.  There are 40 plants in each of these rows.

By 1:30pm we had finished planting 1300 vines in 2 vineyards.  This shot is from the Northwest corner, looking down toward the barn.

This another look at the "big vineyard", looking toward the house.  You can see the other vineyard (number 2) that got planted that day in the upper left corner.  We call that the "Arena Vineyard", because it was planted where we used to have a horse training arena.  The big fire burned up most of the rail fence.