The only other area we can improve is the quality of the grapes themselves. They are the starting point, the basic raw material of wine and in fact it is impossible to make premium wine without premium wine grapes.

The soil on the Dry Creek Valley floor, deposited by Dry Creek over thousands of years, is primarily gravel and sandy loam. Plant-by-plant composting makes up for the spots of soil with unusual concentrations of gravel and sand. Deep, well drained and fertile, this soil produces abundant crops of high quality grapes displaying a complexity of varietal qualities, inherent in the grape's personality.

Through daring experiments with our vineyard soil chemistry we have convinced our vines that they are growing in a highly nutritious ash soil on the side of a volcano instead of our clay loam valley floor. Because of this they provide the intense flavor of hillside vines but can be managed by normal flat-land farming techniques.

The amendments we are making to our soil chemistry are changing the basic nature, or soil component of terroir, and therefore altering the character of the wine. By improving the soil, as growers we are improving all the good things a soil contributes to a wine, and are therefore enhancing the terroir effect, a key to improving wine quality.

Traditional vineyard plantings in California using twelve foot rows and eight foot spacing between vines end up with approximately 500 vines per acre. Our estate has significant plantings in small blocks, some seven feet by four feet spacing and others four feet by four feet spacing, giving us about twice the number of vines per acre.

While the majority of premium wine grape growers would be content with three to four tons per acre from about five hundred vines per acre, we push our vines to compete with each other, each producing less fruit but with a more intense flavor. At the end of the day our production is similar to other growers, except that we are using double the number of vines per acre. By farming for low yield per plant but high yield per vineyard block, we are concentrating each vine’s energy allowing our vineyard site to express its terroir to maximum capacity.

Early deficit irrigation and annual rotation of the cover crop together with crop reduction and canopy management are all important contributors to the ultimate quality in the wine, a quality we call “delicious”.