What’s happening in the vineyard? We have a new kid (aka variety) addition to our vineyard.

It is our long time goal to exclusively farm all of our own fruit for Pressley Vineyards. Currently, we buy our Albarino from an outside source, however, that is about to change.

This spring we took the first steps towards growing our own Albarino. Grafting is a technique that vegetatively joins two plants into one. In this case, we are joining our Gewurztraminer to Albarino. We grafted about an acre of our Gewurztraminer over to Albarino. Grafting from one variety to another was a first for Charlie and I, and was an exciting milestone. The process entailed; taking off the original Gewurztraminer cordon, and stumping the vine. Next, we had a team of professional grafters come in and chip budded two small pieces of Albarino buds to the original Gewurztraminer trunk. Lastly, grafting tape was wrapped around the two newly placed buds to securely hold the Albarino bud to the Gewertztaminer trunk.

So far we are having great success with this project! We are seeing shoot growth and bud activity! Our hope is to train out the Albarino this season and pick our first crop off the vine in 2021. Stay tuned for the release of our first McCormack Ranch Albarino.

Check out the photos to see the grafting process in action!

Have questions? We would love to answer them! Email us!