VOL. 7 No. 2 (6/10/96)

Dear Faithful Subscribers:

With the arrival of spring and the beginning of planting in earnest, it is also a time to make capital purchases. Jeff N. seemed somewhat wounded when L’Agent declined his offer to accompany him to the Tulare Tractor Show. "But it is the largest and best in the West", he plaintively noted. Nevertheless L’Agent (and the Vigneron) decided to pass. They assured him that they were confident that his recommendation would be right. After he returned, Jeff N. recommended a John Deere two-wheel drive, 5,400N tractor. So, off to the John Deere dealer in Santa Maria went L’Agent and the Vigneron on the following Saturday. The Vigneron asked Jeff N. if it was customary to dicker when purchasing a tractor as one does when purchasing a car. Jeff N. politely replied "You could try, but the only other John Deere dealer is in the Salinas Valley."

The Santa Maria dealer quoted the price for the desired tractor. The salesman then offered the tantalizing bit of information that he had the same model in four-wheel drive "with only 59 hours on it" for about the same price as the new two-wheel drive. The Vigneron, trying not to appear to be a rube, pondered the significance of this and decided to call Jeff N. It seems tractors do not have odometers but clocks which record the time the engine is run; all the maintenance is based on hours, not miles. Rather logical — why haven’t car dealers ever thought of this? Jeff N. said this was a great deal and to sign it up, which the Vigneron did. Thereafter Jeff N. and the John Deere dealer discussed the merits of a mower and a discer. Jeff N. decided the John Deere discer was fine but the mower was too light, so the Vigneron purchased a Bush Hog instead.

Upon delivery of the tractor, the Vigneron, the scholar-in-residence and the roommate were given driving lessons. (L’Agent was too busy stitching to try her hand at the wheel.) With 4 phases and 4 gears in each phase, plus all the equipment hook-ups, the tractor is a lot more complicated to drive than the Lexus.

As a new John Deere tractor owner, the Vigneron has recently received a certificate worth $500 off on a John Deere hay baler. Although sorely tempted, the Vigneron is forced to admit he has no use for this. If any of our faithful readers would like it, please let the Vigneron know. If there are no takers, L’Agent suggests we use the $500 rebate as a prize for the plastic picnic knives puzzler (for which there are still only two entries, one of which included some dog treats to try to bribe Bud - he smelled them in the letter and ate them, without even bothering to read the letter).

Meanwhile, the scholar-in-residence’s 1990 Nissan Sentra has come to its last vintage. L’Agent suggested that since the Clos could use a four-wheel drive truck (why not?), perhaps the Vigneron should buy one and let the scholar-in-residence drive it during the week — so the battery would not go dead, of course. Ah, the resourcefulness of mothers. When the Vigneron did not flatly reject this suggestion, the scholar-in-residence and roommate were immediately off scouring the truck lots of the Santa Ynez Valley. They found a half-ton Dodge Ram 4X4 (the "Cowboy Limo") that is not only a boss truck but, luckily, has four-wheel drive as well. The pressure became too much for the Vigneron to bear, so he conceded. Anyway, it gave him the opportunity to dicker with the Dodge dealership, which worked a whole lot better than at John Deere. So the Clos is now the proud owner of a Boss Truck.

Four-wheel drive does not seem to count for much at the Clos. During the first week with the new rig, the scholar-in-residence, thinking that four-wheel drive means Sherman Tank, promptly got stuck in the mud and had to pay $70 to get pulled out. That weekend, the father of L’Agent’s world’s greatest grandchildren (the scholar’s brother) came for a visit in his four-wheel drive Jeep Cherokee. He decided to do some off-roading over the top of the pinot noir knoll and he promptly got stuck in the mud. Fortunately the Vigneron was able to pull him out with the Boss Truck. L’Agent seemed somewhat miffed at the Vigneron’s suggestion that a $35 towing fee would not be unreasonable.

One truism of being a farmer, aka (in West L.A. terms) a vineyard proprietor is that there is a sequence of events that is beyond the control of even the most dedicated Vigneron. We have counted on the vagarier of — dare we say without equanimity — Mother Nature. However, we overlooked the role of the end post driver. Without end posts you cannot string the dripper wire and hang the drippers.

We ordered the vines, surveyed the vineyard, placed the plastic picnic knives and put in the metal stakes. We then waited — and waited — and weeks later the end postman arrived. (Apparently he was occupied with some really big client — 600 acres — and Clos Pepe’s 14 acres didn’t get much respect.)

It only took him three or four days once he was there. With the end posts in, the dripper wires were strung and dripper lines attached by four-inch sections of drip line which were cut like a peeled apple and wrapped around the wire and the dripper line. Then the emitters were punched in, about six inches from the plants — 18,526 of them. That’s a lot of punching. With all that done, the planting was finally ready to begin.

The vines were ready by late February - early March and have been sitting in cold storage (for which the Vigneron’s checkbook is grateful). It seems the grape vines are controlled more by temperature than the calendar and as long as the weather is cold they still think it’s winter and they are not supposed to be growing. On Thursday, May 16, the planting began. By Thursday May 23, the crew had planted two acres of bench-grafted dijon chardonnay clone, four acres of the bench-grafted Davis 4 chardonnay clone and four acres of Davis 5C root stock which will be field-budded to the Wente chardonnay clone in 1997.

We had underestimated the size of the vineyard by three and a half acres, which has contributed to our current cost overrun and budget crisis (along with our heavy investment in John Deere and Chrysler), and so we ordered three and a half acres of green Davis 5 vines on 5C root stock which were planted the first week in June. There were about 500 extra vines which have been planted in the back of the Clos and will be used as replacements. Jeff N. estimates that two percent or 360 vines will fail. By the second week in June, the vines planted in May have pushed through the protective dirt mounds and are two to four inches high!! With all the planting done, the crew then hoed between the vines and Ramon, driving the John Deere, disced between the rows. It’s now starting to look like a real vineyard, and time will only tell if we get real grapes. L’Agent thinks this is all wonderful, but wonders when we’re going to have a real house.

Amidst all the joy and excitement of the initial planting and creating the vineyard, there is, unfortunately some sorrow. Shadow, who took up residence at the Clos last year, jumped the fence one Sunday afternoon, probably chasing a rabbit, was hit by a car on Highway 246 and passed away. Bud will sorely miss his playmate and fellow duck and rabbit chaser. We will all miss her companionship.

Steve, Cathy & Bud

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