Lone Tree Vineyard

“In the immortal words of Jean Paul Sartre, ‘Au revoir, gopher’”
—Carl Spackler, Caddyshack

Managing Lone Tree Vineyard has presented me with so many challenges that I have little or no experience with, I lost count long ago. Fortunately, gopher hunting is not one of them. These furry, little diggers pose a constant threat to the vineyard. In its first full year, I have already lost about 5% of the vines to them.

Growing up on a small orchard, my family was constantly trying different techniques and technologies to get rid of the threat gophers posed to the many living flora on the property. We tried poison, sonic vibration machines, flooding with water, smoke, even wrapping planters with chicken-wire. But of all the strategies, the one thing that consistently did the job was the simple trap.

It’s Spring and gopher activity at Lone Tree is high. Every time I am in the vineyard, I walk the rows and perimeter searching for signs of gophers—little mounds of freshly dug dirt. I have trapped eight gophers in the last month alone.

My personal favorite is the Macabee Gopher Trap, but there are other similarly effective devices. Some recommend baiting the traps with vegetables or cat food. I haven’t found this to increase the odds of success and feel it unnecessary. Regardless of which trap you use, make sure to close the hole behind the set trap and anchor it with a wire and stake, so the trap won’t go wandering due to gopher or predator.

Spring is upon us in the Santa Curz Mountains and with it brings a bounty of color: daffodils, poppies, marigolds, cherry blossoms…. And with the beauties come the beasts: filaree, wild radish, prickly lettuce, burclover, cocklebur, and curly dock to name but a few and henceforth referred to as weeds.

Being my first winter-to-spring transition with vines in the ground, I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect from these little devils. I figured I would begin grooming the vineyard in mid-February as the weather started showing signs of spring.

So, when the appointed time came, I began weeding the vineyard in ernest.  The antagonists were at this point above knee-high in some places and paid no heed to the rule that weeds are expressly prohibited in the intra-row (the area under the trellis).

It began with five hours of weed wacking just to get the inter-rows (the walkable area between the rows of vines) under control. Next came the hoeing. With the help of several friends, a bit of hired help, and many, many hours of scraping the earth, the vineyard was back to a respectable state.

The take-away from this rather daunting task is this: In California, start weeding shortly after the first rains in November. Tiny weeds are much easier to manage and if these early germinators are dealt with promptly, I am told the springtime weed onslaught is greatly diminished.

Welcome to the Lone Tree Vineyard blog. I’m Nathan Rapheld, the proprietor, vineyard manager, and financier of Lone Tree, a small vineyard in California’s Santa Cruz Mountains AVA. The 180 Pinot Noir vines occupy a quarter-of-an-acre of a south-facing slope at an elevation of 1500ft. I planted the vineyard in the spring of 2009 as a hobby, an experiment even, to satisfy a long-time desire to learn more about winemaking and to immerse myself in an activity as back-to-the-earth and steeped in tradition as farming grapes.

When sharing stories of my vineyard adventures with friends and colleagues, many have expressed an interest in learning more about what it takes to make a vineyard go. While I am by no means an expert on grape growing—always trying to keep a step ahead on the learning curve—I am going through the process in real-time. So whether you’re an aspiring viticulturist, armchair farmer, or simply a wine-lover, I will share my thoughts and experiences throughout the growing seasons here at Lone Tree Vineyard.