The land is clay. No herbicides or pesticides. We are planting vines and maintaining the health of the soils.
Vineyards planted May 2025 and May 2026.
Follow our journey here.
Our journey…2026
Drainage
Vines do not like wet feet!
The vineyard sites are situated on flood land and in winter the land is soggy. We had drainage put in that flows into the ditches.
Liming
The clay soils are too acidic. To bring the pH up we are adding lime the soils.
In 2025 we tried to apply lime to the surface of the vineyards but it did not penetrate the soil. For the second vineyard we subsoiled, plowed, power harrowed, limed and then power harrowed again. The vines are much happier!
Planting vines 2026
In May we planted hybrids/PiWis. We selected high grafts since we share the land with rabbits and we would prefer they eat other new shoots. Thank you to everyone who came out to prep and plant. A lot of prep work went into the vineyard, marking out the vines, predigging and digging the holes, and then planting the the vines. Great job all!
A very dry Spring & Summer 2026
After a hot summer of constant watering, tying up vines, putting up guards and watering and more watering, we can say the vines have grown exponentially! They loved the heat and with a drink they took off!
Grape varieties we planted at Great Old Hay Winery:
Sauvignac
Cabernet Blanc
Calardis Blanc
Souvignier Gris
Caberet Noir
Rinot
VB 32-7
Pinotin
Muscaris
Cabernet Jura
