Flaherty Wines

It’s been ages since I’ve written about the vineyard project in Cauquenes, but that doesn’t mean the project is languishing. We’re moving forward with the first phase of planting, despite a few obstacles. One of the first challenges when establishing a vineyard is ensuring a water supply. Cauquenes gets more the twice the rainfall of Aconcagua, but it is concentrated in the winter months, leaving most of the growing season dry. That means we’ll need to water the new plants. All of the old vineyards in the region are dry farmed, so we know the water table is within reach of the root system, and we intend to follow the local tradition of dry farming to naturally control vigor and to promote an ecologically sustainable project. The problem is establishing the vines. 

Our first plan was to dig a well. A local engineer came out, complete with a set of divining rods, and estimated the water table to be within reach. At the proposed well site, he estimated that he would hit either water or bedrock at around ten meters. Sure enough, he hit bedrock at 11 meters. He was digging the well with a hand operated screw drill, and had he made it to the water table we would have had a very economical solution to the water problem. As it stands, the well is on hold, as we need to either continue drilling with a very expensive machine or try again at another site. On to plan B. Plan B is to truck in water for the new plants this year while we build a reservoir down in the boggy area of the property to start collecting water next winter. We’ll reconsider the well when he have enough vineyard planted to justify the expense.

In the meantime, we’ve been prepping the land for planting. Don Ismael cleared two and a half hectares with his draft horse. We then brought in a tractor to pull out the larger stumps, leaving a number of native Huingán and Espino trees in place. (They were just to pretty to rip out.) Next we ripped the soil down to two meters, which will facilitate root development in the early years. Finally, we put in new fencing around the projected vineyard site to keep out the horses when they are pasturing on the land in the spring and early summer.