Established
in 1975, the Brander Vineyard is one of the oldest in the
Santa Ynez Valley appellation. The vineyard is about 40 acres
and is mostly planted to Bordeaux varietals, which relish
the warm days and cool nights. The vineyard is a beautiful
patchwork of 13 acres of Sauvignon Blanc, 10 acres of Cabernet
Sauvignon, 6 acres each of Merlot and Chardonnay, 3 acres
of Cabernet Franc and 2 acres of Semillon.
The soils in the vineyard
are gravelly and consist of a fine sandy loam over clay subsoil.
The older part of the vineyard is planted on its own rootstock
with the wider spacing that was popular when the vineyard
was planted, resulting in about 602 vines per acre. The replanted
part of the vineyard includes the new SO4, 3309 and 5BB louse-tolerant
rootstocks, and has tighter spacing to stress the vines a
bit, and features 2,400 vines per acre. Both cane pruning
and cordon pruning methods are employed, depending upon the
varietal and age of the vine. The vineyard is managed by John
Kryska, and overseen by owner/winemaker Fred Brander.
The vineyard generally yields
about 3-4 tons per acre, or about 8,000 cases of wine per
year, most of which is Sauvignon Blanc. Total production is
about 5,000 cases of Sauvignon Blanc, 2,000 cases of Cabernet
Sauvignon and Merlot and 1,000 cases of a proprietary Bordeaux
blend, called Bouchet, all from the estate vineyard.
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