New Nebbiolo Vines

I was given Nebbiolo grafted vines this February. Nebbiolo is a red Italian wine grape variety.  Nebbiolo derive its name from the Italian word nebbia which means "fog." During harvest, which generally takes place late in October, a deep, intense fog sets into the Langhe region of Italy where many Nebbiolo vineyards are located.  Nebbiolo produces lightly colored red wines which can be highly tannic in youth with scents of tar and roses. As they age, the wines take on a characteristic brick-orange hue at the rim of the glass and mature to reveal other aromas and flavors such as violets, tar, wild herbs, cherries, raspberries, truffles, tobacco, and prunes.My vines are shown above. This is their first year and they're just making it up to the guide wire.Behind in the distance you can see my raspberries, which I hope to mix in with the wine during fermentation so that my Nebbiolo wine won't taste like tar or prunes -- but more like raspberries. Growing grapes and making wine is a long-term project. It will be next year this time before I have any grapes and two years before I have any wine that's drinkable.

So I tore up my Barberra vines -- which had provided an extremely high acid wine, with these new vines.  After hearing horror stories of how the glassy wing sharpshooter gave Pierce's disease to a friend's vineyard, I figured I'd try and play it safe. Also, these Nebbiolo vines are grafted onto rootstock which should make them more disease-resistant. Most of my grapevines I've self-propagated from cuttings I've gathered from wineries -- mainly cause I'm such a cheapass and don't want to pay for the grafted variety.