to my in the vines series of blogs. As a recap, this series covers a long holiday weekend of events I participated in at two local VA wineries. We are currently about a third of the way through a tour with Hillsborough wine maker Kerem Baki. We are on his side hill overlooking his large patch of Fer Servadou grapes. He had just finished explaining 
how picking a vineyard site can be very difficult. You not only have to find the ingredients of good draining soil that is not too nutrient rich as vines need to struggle, a site that offers wind to keep your canopies dry, and sun to help photosynthesis develop and ripen the fruit as the grapes are the secret behind good wine. The Fer Servadou grapes are popular grapes at Hillsborough making appearances in their Ruby and Bloodstone wines. Before discovering Hillsborough , I had not heard of Fer Servadou let alone had it in a wine. However, Bloodstone has quickly become one of my favorite wines offered from Hillsborough and Fer Servadou no doubt plays a big role in that.From there we strolled to the other side of the vineyard and along the way Kerem explained the model behind their vineyard management. Unlike some vineyards that pay random crews at different times to prune and groom their vineyards with oversight from a vineyard manager; Hillsborough has 4 people full time employees charged with maintaining their vines. This keeps those four plenty busy, but it also helps them know the individual plants, and allows them adequate time to spot problems as they are developing which can mean the difference between a good and great year of fruit.
The
next grape was my personal favorite single variety when done right, Petite Verdot. Unlike the states’ choice of Viognier, I believe Petite Verdot could be the VA’s signature grape. In my travels around VA it is popular enough, yet unique enough that although every winery could make one, and no two taste the same. 
But enough on my preaching as to what VA’s signature grape should be, let’s get back to the tour. As we walked up one of the rows of PV, one of my tour mates noted plump lush groups of grapes on the ground. Kerem explained they limit the production of the vines, and they do that by going through the vines and selecting the damaged or incomplete clumps of grapes and removing them. They had recently trimmed back their PV leaving the remaining grapes to get the full attention of the vine during the last four to six weeks of ripening. With the looks of the grapes that were left behind, I’m excited for the wine that they produce. Hopefully Irene and Lee didn’t leave to much water for the vines to utilize.
From there 
we went on the hike part of the vineyard walk. We walked up the long row of PV, across the dirt entry road between the tasting room and the farm house and then climbed to highest part of the vineyard. 
From the top of their vineyard we found ourselves surrounded by the more traditional wine 
grapes Merlot, Cab Franc, and Cab Sauvignon. After finishing our delicious samples of these more traditional wine grapes it was time to head back to the tasting room to enjoy the fruits of Hillsborough hard labor. 
under the sunset.
We decided our wine would be Garnet to go with our dinner. I left this vineyard tour with a lot more knowledge of all it takes to maintain a vineyard, but more importantly how much work goes into the care and feeding for grapes long before the hectic time of harvest and fermentation. It makes me more appreciative of those who create the wines I enjoy week in and week out. I encourage all my readers if they get a chance to spend some time taking a walk with the wine maker at Hillsborough . You’ll be glad you did.
