Journal

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Last year we cleared some fir trees that were shading an area of the Merlot; we decided to plant a small block of Syrah on the cleared area as an experiment. Carolyn and Jim Pride, with their wine maker Bob Foley, bought some bulk Merlot wine made from

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Before this year, we had a contract with our friends across the road, the Schweigers, who would send their foreman and crawler over to do work around the vineyard. We would have to stop traffic and lay heavy boards across the road so he could drive from their

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We had been coming to St. Helena from Midland, Texas (our home at the time) since 1983, staying and working on the property from a few days to a few weeks at a time. This year we decided that the vineyard needed full-time supervision, so we rented an

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In the spring, we planted 3,555 Merlot vines that were one-year old bench grafts. At the same time, we planted 945 Cabernet Sauvignon vines. The Cabernet was a clone from Germany that was planted in the original vineyard at Inglenook. Both were planted on AXR-1 rootstock. Unfortunately for

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17 acres of rugged, untamed mountain-top land was purchased. Ten acres of the property were cleared and the steeper areas were terraced. We put in two ten-thousand gallon cement water tanks at the top of the vineyard to hold water for future irrigation and a six-foot high deer