Compost and Nebbiolo

Upon first glance this pile looks pretty much like any old pile of dirt. Hardly thrilling stuff, really.



But if we look closer, and take a sniff, we see that this pile is very dark in color and smells almost sweet. Compost is awesome stuff, teaming with microbial life. Full of organic matter building fungi and bacteria this stuff really rocks in the vineyard. We compost grape skins, seed, stems and mix in some Camel manure, from Camel Hill Vineyard obviously, and let the pile ferment. We monitor the temperature and moisture content, turning the pile and covering it to control these factors.

We are almost finished applying the compost to our vineyards, we applied most to a block of Merlot at Gist Ranch. By adding compost we are addressing nutritional problems, not just their symptoms. We are actively building life and structure into our soil that will benefit the long-term nutritional needs of our vines.



We did add some to our Nebbiolo at the winery, above you can see the small vines and the compost added around the vine.



I've named the 0.25 acre Nebbiolo vineyard, Domenicato. I read that it means forgotten in Italian and that was kind of how I found this vineyard when I arrived here in 2004. Slowly but surely we are replanting dead vines, addressing training issue and now adding some much needed nutrients, in the form of compost, to these struggling vines. The slope the vineyard lies on is quite steep with really thin rocky soil. We are bottling a barrel of our 2006 Neb this week, our first from Domenicato! We have a half bbl from 2007 as well. If we could get one barrel a year out of this tiny plot I'll be thrilled!