Thursday, June 25, 2009

Rain, Rain, Rain

All the wet weather has brought not only tremendous growth, but an influx of unwanted pests. None of them hurt the grapes, but they could affect the leaves. Downy mildew looks like a white powder on the underside of the leaf. Little white capsules on the underside of the leaf hatch out into little black bugs that crawl around, but don’t eat the leaf.

The new entrance to Layton’s Chance looks like a super highway off the New Bridge Road driveway to the winery being built by United Construction. A larger culvert and the beginning of a huge stone driveway now show the world where Layton’s Chance is about to be born.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Construction to Start Soon!

What has been a field of grain for the last hundred years will soon be a winery! A new construction date of July 12 has been set by Morton after the debate about the sprinkler system was resolved (at least for now). We are ready to build as soon as the materials arrive. Some equipment for the winery has already started to arrive, and the rest will be shipped as soon as the building is ready.

The grapes are growing like a jungle from all this rain. Four grape varieties - Chambourcin, Vidal, Traminette, and Norton are climbing faster than the vineyard workers can keep up with them.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

A Real Address!!

Layton’s Chance has an address and a mailbox. A black mailbox proclaims, “Layton’s Chance - 4225 New Bridge Rd.” The bulldozers and earthmovers are working, and the site pad for the winery is almost complete. The trucks haul in rubble fill for the parking lot, and that work is still in progress. If the rain would stop, perhaps the rest of the work could get done. For the last 3 weeks, Vienna has had nothing but clouds and rain – not conducive to building a winery, or to growing crops for that matter.