Home History Wine list 
Articles The Slug Gulch Wine Club

Oakstone Winery’s Estate Vineyards

Thanks to a new, high-resolution aerial photo of our area shown on Google Earth, here is an updated listing by block of our estate vineyards.

1-4.  De Cascabel Vineyard—planted in 1981by Ron Mansfield of Goldbud Farms.
1:Three acres of cabernet sauvignon. 2: One acre of "old" merlot. 3: 0.5 acre of cabernet franc, replanted in 2001-2003. 4: One acre "new" merlot, grafted from cabernet in 1996. 23: 0.5 acre of carmenere, grafted from cabernet sauvignon in 2007. 24 0.5 acre of dolcetto, also grafted from cabernet sauvignon in 2007. The entire original vineyard was on quadrilateral trellising, AxR1 rootstock, 8’ by 12’ spacing and is drip irrigated with the exception of the lowest eight rows of Cabernet, which are dry farmed. The cabernet franc is planted on 5BB rootstock and is a bilateral cordon, as are the most recently grafted vines.

De Cascabel is Spanish for rattlesnake, and the vineyard got its name from a nest of hibernating rattlesnakes discovered when a boulder was rolled away during clearing in the spring of ‘81.

5-7:  Geoff & Katy Farm—planted in 1997. 5: ½ acre of malbec and 6: ½ acre of petite sirah on 110R rootstock (the petite sirah was grafted from petit verdot, right before the final harvest of petit verdot turned into a double gold medal-winning wine). 7: Single remaining row of petit verdot. Drip irrigated and 6’ x 10’ spacing on a bilateral cordon with a “catch wire” to help elevate the shoots. The first commercial crop was in 2000. Katy and Geoffrey are the Smiths’ two children, and when they used to help their father make wine at home from Welch’s grape juice concentrate, the wine was named in the manner of a then-famous apple wine.

8: A single row of 23 decorative sangiovese vines (and one zinfandel vine) planted along the driveway.

9-11:   Lemley Ranch—planted in 1997. 9: ½ acre of Charbono (a French grape with an Italian name, producing a wine famous for its robustness) on 3309 rootstock. 10: 76 Sangiovese clone 4 vines on 1103P. 11: 0.5 acre of Pinot Grigio (an Italian grape that sometimes has a French name) on SO4 rootstock. Also 6’ x 10’, drip irrigated, and bilateral cordon with catch wire. The first crop was 1999. The property was sold to the Smiths in 1995 by Art and Mary Lemley.

12:  Lost Arrow Vineyard—planted in 1999, it consists of one-third acre of Petite Sirah on 1103P rootstock. It will be head-trained and dry-farmed once the vines are established. On our next-door neighbors’ (Harlan and Sandi Reese) property, the name arose when the rains following plowing revealed a rich lode of arrowheads, chips and other Native American artifacts.

13-14:  Mother Vine Ranch—planted in 2000. 13: One acre of pinot grigio (grafted from viognier in 2004). 14: Another acre of pinot grigio, grafted from viognier in 2007. All planted at 5.5 X 9 foot spacing, bilateral cordon with vertical shoot positioning. Named for the native vitis californicus grapevine growing on the property with a trunk over eight inches in diameter.

15-17: Fiddlehead Vineyard— planted in 2003. 15: One acre of malbec clone 9 on 110R rootstock. A large number of ferns grow alongside Slug Gulch Road (even though they aren't fiddlehead ferns, John's father was a violin maker who always referred to his creations as "fiddles"). 16: One acre of muscat cannelli on 1103P rootstock. 17: About 50 vines of alicante bouschet on 110R rootstock (resulting from a minor math error in the Sernedipity Hill vineyard). All plants on 5.5 by 9 foot spacing, drip irrigated.

18-19: Paso Vista Vineyard—cleared in 2000 and planted in 2001. 18: One acre of petite sirah on 110R rootstock. 19: 5 acres of Higgins clone zinfandel, also on 110R. Spacing is 6 x 10 feet, and the vines are head-trained and will be dry-farmed. Named for its view of the adjacent MooseVine Ranch, owned by the Boyds, where magnificent Peruvian Paso horses are bred and raised.

20: Serendipity Hill Vineyard— this area, which has dramatically different topography from the adjacent Piedras Grandes site (a swale or saddle rather than a steep slope), is planted to one acre of alicante bouschet on 110R rootstock, 5.5 x 9 foot spacing, and head-trained. In time, it will provide either a unique, obscure varietal wine, or a blending grape to add color and body as it has for generations in many countries. A minor math error resulted in three rows of alicante spilling over into the Fiddlehead site.

21-22:  Piedras Grandes Vineyard—acquired in August of 2002 and planted in July of 2003. 21: one acre of petite sirah on 110R rootstock. 22: One acre of charbono, also on 110R. Both varieties are are head-trained and planned to be dry-farmed, planted at 5.5 x 10 feet. The parcels where vineyards 13-17 and 20-22 are located have been combined into a single 21-acre property, where the Obscurity Cellars facility was finally completed in 2005. The name Piedras Grandes derives from the house-sized boulders that needed to be relocated for planting (and from the three that couldn't be budged and that now lurk just below the surface, waiting to surprise an unsuspecting tractor driver). A challenging site, the slope varies from about 10% at the ends to over 30% at the center. The grapes will struggle in this location, but the resulting wine should reflect the victory of vine over environment.