by Jim Cassidy » Sun Oct 08, 2006 10:44 pm
...is what I have instead of a front lawn. This is a desert, I refuse to irrigate anything I can't consume (and I hate pushing a lawnmower!) We have about 30 vines varying in age from 1-4 years. We are still arguing with the county about where our front property line will be when improvements in the neighborhood are done; we may lose most of the current vines. If the decisions go our way, we should end up with close to 40 vines.
We have 5 zins and 3 cabs which are not grafted; we bought these from a local nursery. These are our "old vines" at 4 years. Everything else is grafted, imported bare-root from California. We have 4 merlots and a 3-4 syrahs at 3 years. The rest are syrahs we put in last year. Merlots and syrahs seem to do the best here.
Two years ago, we made wine from the zins only, (birds got the cabs) picked on the only day I could get to it, after two days of heavy rain. Watery, chapitalized, lousy color, barely drinkable, but makes an okay sangria.
Last year, we learned why eary season control of powdery mildew is important... No wine made...
So far this year, the mix of three year old syrah and merlot looks like its going to be pretty good. Had to chapitalize the zin, and we're pickng the cabs tomorrow.
So, to answer your question, what grows well here? We don't really know yet...
Jim Cassidy
Owner, Millcreek Vineyards
(The prettiest vineyard in the Salt Lake Valley)