The following dramatization came out of my brainstorming session for the Acequia Wine Club’s Autumn 2008 newsletter.
This September the earliest vines planted at The Vines’ of Mendoza’s Private Vineyard Estate project will celebrate their first birthday; in their honor I offer the following tale here on Vino e Vita. This is the story of ‘Everyvine’ - an international varietal born in the old world only to start life again in the new.
I begin my new life in the southern hemisphere in darkness.
It is humid in my incubator, and cold - unlike mammals, my kind thrives in low temperatures. If I get too dry, I’ll die.
Immediately after my birth in Italy I was grafted to a distant American relative who will help me resist disease and adapt to a long and healthy life in his native soil. Although I was almost a foot and a half long and my partner only 1 inch, we were joined by “Omega Graft” a cut was made in my base to allow for the insertion of my new roots. Now one, we commence our journey to the new world.
The trip over the ocean takes more than a month. Upon arrival I rest for over 3 months in cold storage, then I am taken to my new home at the foot of the Andes.
What a view there is here! These mountains put even the Alps to shame.
Immediately before planting I am submerged in water where I sit for 24 hours and rehydrate while my new accommodations are prepared.
Buried at a depth of a foot and a half, covered with earth and compacted, the training stake is driven into the land beside me to ensure that I grow straight and true. A grow tube surrounds me to protect me from heat and the herbicides that will be sprayed to prevent weeds from encroaching on my turf. I don’t like competition - but I don’t much like chemicals, either!
My first major test comes in the first 20 days - and I pass. If I don’t adapt to my new home during this time I will surely die; instead I grow up and my leaves peak through the top of my grow tube after only a month in the ground. If I’m lucky I will reach the first of my 4 training wires – the fruit wire. I am constantly fertilized, irrigated, and treated with fungicide. My shoots are thinned so that I get as many nutrients as possible in my trunk.
In order to survive the first winter my roots must be deep and strong. Despite the cold and snow, I will persevere! While the land is frozen I am cut right above the fruit wire. When spring begins I have 4 or 5 new shoots; all but 2 are cut. They will become my arms and will soon be producing fruit to make the wine that you have come to know and love.
This was written with the help of Francisco Evangelista, Senior Agronomist and Vineyard Manager for The Vines of Mendoza.