sleeping lady vineyard
sleeping lady vineyard
If you think about a hundred and fifty years ago, what the valley looked like… very different, obviously. It wasn’t unusual to grow up on a property like this—old house set back right at the toe of the hill because that’s just what you did.
You get the privacy, the shade in the afternoon. Those alluvial fans were good for houses. The two old palm trees sitting out in front of the house, that’s classic; there aren’t many places like that left.
caldwell vineyard
caldwell vineyard
And the guy was talking to me about the rock and all the problems involved and expense, but he mentioned, you know, Caldwell, this could be a good vineyard because we are getting the rippers down there. He says, the rippers, we can sink ’em, and I said, well, show me.
So he put the rippers down and we went down the property line and came back and that was it—the smell, the dirt piling up behind.
moon mountain
moon mountain
Super red dirt — so dark it’s almost purple — that’s an indicator of iron-rich soils weathered over long periods of time. Here it exists in a range that’s relatively young. This is the riper side of Mt. Veeder, and yet it’s up on a plateau in the cooler elevations. This is a place of dichotomies.