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Following on a tradition I learned at other local vineyards, I’m putting on my 4th annual Puget Sound/Cool Climate Grape Growing class. This is a full day class for people interested in growing grapes in their backyard or people that want to take the next step and run a commercial vineyard in the Puget Sound/British Columbia region. This class is focused on growing grapes in the Puget Sound region, but these principles could be applied to a wide variety of locations from Oregon to British Columbia.For those that are interested, here is a little about me: I’m going into my 14th year of growing grapes commercially. I first started at Maury Island Vineyards in 1998 where we had 3 acres of grapes in the ground. In 2003, we moved to Woodinville and started Hollywood Hill Vineyards where we farm 1.5 acres of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. We also test about 20 different varieties to see how they do in this climate. I have lectured at a variety of conferences, conventions and meetings including: Focus On Farming, Western Washington Horticultural Association and the Northwest Agribusiness Center. I was a part time teacher for two years at the Northwest Wine Academy at South Seattle Community College where I taught Viticulture classes.
In this class, we will be focusing on how to grow grapes here in Western Washington. The class will go from 9am to 4pm. We cover a lot of ground in the class. We’ll provide the food, coffee and wine and also give you a notebook of the slides from the class. At lunch we will taste some of my Puget Sound wines and other wines from the Puget Sound AVA. During the last hour of the class, we’ll get some hands on time pruning in our estate vineyard and you can take some cuttings home with you to start for yourself.
Topics covered by the class will be:
- History of Puget Sound wine growing
- Puget Sound Climate
- Site Selection
- Grape variety selection
- Site Prep
- Starting cuttings
- How to train vines
- Cost to establish a vineyard
- Pest control
- Harvest Parameters
- And Much More!
Class will be on March 1st, 2015. 9am-4pm. Cost $125 per person.
Coffee, morning snack, lunch and wine tasting provided.
Email Steve at steve@hollywoodhillvineyards.com or call (425-753-0093) to purchase a seat in the class. We have room for about 20 people and seats go fast.
