Attn: East Bay home winemakers

A friend of mine with no viticultural aptitude just bought a place in Alamo that comes with an established cabernet vineyard. The previous owner says it produces about 1 barrel’s worth. My friend would like to find someone who would like to farm it and take the grapes in return. I haven’t looked at it, but I thought there was a chance this might be of interest to someone lurking on this forum. If so, I’d like to refer you to Bill Taylor – wctaylorjr1@gmail.com

I’ve been looking for something like this for a while. Was hoping I could network and find someone with a backyard vineyard of old vines. I’m not a huge Cabernet fan, but this sounds interesting. I’ll sent him an email

I tried to contact Bill, but no luck.

Sorry Tim, I should have posted the follow up. The fruit got picked up by one of my former tenant wineries. I haven’t heard the post-harvest report on the fruit.

Hey Stewart,
The update on the Alamo vineyard is, all good. Thanks for connecting me to Ann and Bill. We picked about 3/4 of a ton of Cab at about 24 brix right around the big heat spike. There are about 500 vines on a rather steep hillside. My understanding of the vineyard is that it was a bit of a vanity project, the people before us were paying way too much money on a monthly basis to have the vineyard landscaped by hand. We don’t do that. There is a covering of something akin to humus. The vines are healthy and robust, my guess is that’s due to how much water and fertilizer were being run through the irrigation lines. This year we will irrigate, but probably not as much as the people before us. We’ve begun pruning and repairing a couple of posts that have fallen out of position, but mostly, we are in an observation mode and considering how to infuse life into the soil, to see what’s underneath that humus.
Cheers my friend.
Oh, and btw, the wine we made, about a barrel and a half is delicious, a little tannic, but savory and with excellent.

Sounds cool, Noel. Any idea how old the vines are?

I need to visit you guys up in your new space soon. Cheers! [cheers.gif]

Hey Ken,
Sorry for the delay in response. We aren’t sure how old the vines are, but I’ve had a couple of friends give a guess based on the size of the trunk and cordon development that the vines are at least 15 years old.
And yes, you must come for a visit soon. Maybe we’ll do a winemaker get-together like what Harrington does, get Stewart and Eric and some of the other OGs (respectfully) out to Richmond.
I’ll come up with a date and get something on the calendar.
Cheers!
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Thanks for the info, Noel. Yes, it would be fun to get together out in Richmond to see the place and check out what you all are making there. [cheers.gif]