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April of 2003, we planted our first section of vineyard (14,500
vines on 7.5 acres), which gave us our first real chance to
put the top quality viticulture practices which we had been
studying into practice. Our first parcel of grapes consisted
of Syrah and the Bordeaux reds (Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet
Franc, Merlot, Malbec and Petit Verdot). Once we had the vines
in the ground, we spent most of the summer building a trellis
for the new vineyard, taking the first steps toward training
the vines, and doing our best to protect the new growth from
the soggy weather. The summer of 2003 in Maryland will go on
the record as the rainiest in history. While grapevines, like
any new plant, need lots of water, the nearly constant rainfall
we experienced increased disease pressure on the vines, and
made it more difficult for them to get established. However,
despite the challenging growing conditions, nearly all of the
vines grew well and most importantly of all, made it through
their first winter in the ground with minimal casualties.For more information about our first season, click here.
