The Hellanback Ranch Vineyard consists of 4 blocks planted with syrah, petit verdot, merlot, cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc.  The climate is generally hot and dry, with mild to cool evenings.  The soil is made up of decomposing granite (DG) and red clay.  Irrigation comes from one of the two deep wells on the ranch property.  The water coming from these wells was tested to be "drinking water" quality. A 5th block will be planted sometime in the future.  It is a North-facing slope of approximately one and a half acres.  We are thinking about planting viogner or petit sirah there (also considering marsanne and roussanne). The vineyards are doing very well except for the individual plants that the rabbits manage to destroy.  The rabbits have become a huge problem, actually chewing their way through protective grow tubes to get at the young plants that were planted this year as replacements for plants lost last year.  The vineyards were pruned in March 2010.  We will be applying a biotic application called Trigger, plus nutrients this year to try to improve root health and function and reduce scatter, improving yield.
Harvest 2010.  We got 3 tons from our vineyards, not as much as we had hoped for, but it was a really unusual year in terms of weather.  We expect way more in 2011.	But we crushed 11 tons, yes 22,000 lbs!  We bought some grapes from other growers and crushed all the grapes from Altipiano Vineyards.  Paula is in charge of the crush.  She and her crew were purple for a month.
The "Big Vineyard", looking toward the south.  This vineyard is planted with cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, merlot, petit verdot, and syrah.  The rows are spaced 10 feet apart, with vines every 8 feet, double cordon.  The bird netting was installed in Spring 2010.	This a view of part of the "big vineyard" looking southwest from the house.
Merlot grapes from the 2010 harvest.	Look at the vineyard on April 1, 2011.  No - this is not an April Fools joke.  It really snowed 2.5 inches that morning.