So you think you're a wine enthusiast? Well check this out.

Love wine, growing grapes, wine making and have lotsa time on your hands? Then The Purple Grin Winery is your blueprint for Nirvana...

The Purple Grin Winery

The 300 vine vineyard:

[img]http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u177/taco_casa/16.jpg[/img]

The wine cave:

[img]http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u177/taco_casa/cave25.jpg[/img]



I found this on a wine making website I frequent. Thought I would share with the other wine makers here. The site has photo logs of establishing the vineyard and the building of the wine cave. Hope you enjoy!

It looks wonderful, but where the heck is this, I wonder? I'm guessing somewhere on the US West Coast.

I love the inventive thoughtfulness and wine-growing vision that these folks had. What a civilized thing to do. Just viewing the lot before the vineyard was established and after was most inspiring. They turned a razed patch of dirt into something beautiful and cultured!

I want that wine cave!!!

It looks wonderful, but where the heck is this, I wonder? I'm guessing somewhere on the US West Coast.

Escondido, CA, according to the guy's forum profile. He says he gets a lot of stares and shaking heads from his neighbors who think he's nuts.

Escondido, CA, according to the guy's forum profile. He says he gets a lot of stares and shaking heads from his neighbors who think he's nuts.

Geez . . . what's with the neighbours? I think he's a genius

Escondido, CA, according to the guy's forum profile. He says he gets a lot of stares and shaking heads from his neighbors who think he's nuts.

Geez . . . what's with the neighbours? I think he's a genius

Yep, he's officially become my hero.

I hate my hall closet now!

I could totally do this in my backyard.

Does anyone have experience in planting their own backyard vines? It seems to not be that difficult a propostion (at least in small numbers), and it would be fun to try and grow the grapes that your homemade wine comes from. By the way, I agree -- serious cellar envy!!

Does anyone have experience in planting their own backyard vines?

Well, I know that our very own Howie does - he planted a nice vineyard recently. (Any updates on how it's coming along, Howie?)

I have all of two labrusca vines - no more room for any more, though I hope to have a small vineyard one day for my own purposes. It would be most rewarding to baby the vines from budbreak to harvest, and then sit back and enjoy one's very own cru, if you will, the rest of the year.

Nice, but someone needs to buy (or I guess bottle) some more wine. That's a lot of space for what looks to be less than 100 bottles. More thermal mass would help when opening a door in California summer.

Does anyone have experience in planting their own backyard vines? It seems to not be that difficult a propostion (at least in small numbers), and it would be fun to try and grow the grapes that your homemade wine comes from. By the way, I agree -- serious cellar envy!!

I have 20 vines in my nano-vineyard (Norton, Vidal, Merlot all planted this year and a few labrusca planted over the past 2 years.) I plan on expanding by 5 or 6 more vines as I clear off some more space in my smallish back yard, not sure of the variety as of yet.

Where would one acquire the vines to plant?

Purple Grin Winery--cool!

Where would one acquire the vines to plant?

If you live in the Eastern US, a great place to order from is Double A Vineyards in Fredonia, NY. They carry vinifera, labrusca, and hybrids. To get a good selection of vines/rootstock (especially the grafted vines), order the fall before the coming spring you plan to plant as they ship March - May. They still have many vines in stock but they are quickly running out. Case in point, I ordered my 6 Vidal Blanc on 101-14 rootstock the first week of April and as of yesterday they have sold out.

Double A Vineyards

I have vines I planted in my yard 2 years ago. I planted most from 1-year old vines I bought from Double-A. They are doing pretty good, but I'm not expecting fruit for at least another year. I planted 22 each of Vignoles and Chambourcin and 11 each of Traminette and Cayuga. I also planted Leon Millot and Vidal from cuttings, but they aren't doing well. I may re-plant that area with Noiret.

I could totally do this in my backyard.

So could I, but what would one grow in Nevada or New Jersey?

Where would one acquire the vines to plant?

In California there are any number of commercial nurseries for v. vinifera. Since the guy's in Escondido, he could just motor up a bit northward and avail himself of Tablas Creek's excellent nursery operation for Rhonish varieties. OTOH, he could also do what countless winemakers before him have done and sneak into a vineyard that he particularly likes and snip a few cuttings to graft onto easily purchased rootstock.

Mark Lipton

I could totally do this in my backyard.

So could I, but what would one grow in Nevada or New Jersey?

I was referring to the Wine Cave.

If you live in the Eastern US, a great place to order from is Double A Vineyards in Fredonia, NY

Be warned that there are whispers about problems with Crown Gall in vines sold by Double A. I hate to spread anything that is untrue but I have been told this enough times by commercial growers, wineries and other nurseries that I can not ignore that it may be true. Proceed with caution.

Also note that there are other East Coast nurseries that appear to be independent that rely on Double A for their stock. This sad tale was related to me by one commercial winery in Virginia that bought replant stock from Double A due to crown gall problems with previous vines only to find out the two companies had a business relationship and his new vines may originate from the same source material.

I am on the east coast but have worked with west coast nurseries for the 225 vines I have planted. I have not had any issues with quality or service despite my small order quantity or the fact that I am east coast. I would not let where you reside dictate your choice of nursery.

I picked up March 2007 issue of "Entrepreneur" in the doctor's waiting office today (it was that or children's Bible stories) and saw a brief feature on the WinePod. This is supposedly a multitasking, interactive winemaking machine that helps instruct the beginning winemaker in different phases of production and sells for about $3500. Has anyone used it?

If you live in the Eastern US, a great place to order from is Double A Vineyards in Fredonia, NY

Be warned that there are whispers about problems with Crown Gall in vines sold by Double A. I hate to spread anything that is untrue but I have been told this enough times by commercial growers, wineries and other nurseries that I can not ignore that it may be true. Proceed with caution.

Also note that there are other East Coast nurseries that appear to be independent that rely on Double A for their stock. This sad tale was related to me by one commercial winery in Virginia that bought replant stock from Double A due to crown gall problems with previous vines only to find out the two companies had a business relationship and his new vines may originate from the same source material.

I am on the east coast but have worked with west coast nurseries for the 225 vines I have planted. I have not had any issues with quality or service despite my small order quantity or the fact that I am east coast. I would not let where you reside dictate your choice of nursery.

Any west coast nursery suggestions for people who may only want to order quantities <20?

Any west coast nursery suggestions for people who may only want to order quantities <20?

The two nurseries that I have worked with have a minimum order of 25 vines per type. Depending upon how much less than 20 you want it becomes a question of economics. The vines cost me between $3.75-$4.00 each with some surcharges on top of that and shipping. I think all totaled it ran me between $4.66 -$6.00 per vine. The large difference in the fully burdened price is the surcharges for VCR clones and shipping cost spread over 50 vines versus spread over 150 vines. I am not sure how much a fully burdened vinifera cost you from east coast nursery when purchased in quantities less than 25 but I thought they were more expensive so it may not be much more to buy the 25 vine and just plant what you need.

The two nurseries I have worked with are Vintage nurseries
http://www.vintagenurseries.com/
and NovaVine
http://www.novavine.com/

I put in 25 Barbera vines from Vintage last year that I have had 100% survival on and just planted 150 other vines 6 days ago. Too early to tell but all seems to be going well.

I put in 50 vines from NovaVine about 10 days and most have bud swell and some have broken. Everything seems to be fine and the quality of the stock looked great when I planted it.

The corner of my basement rec room will never seem the same again !

CHEERS!

Art