Summer 2024 BENOM Estate Updates
July 22, 2024
In September 2023, we purchased a beautiful estate on York Mountain. We're thrilled to share that we have completed planting the BENOM Estate vineyard with rootstock, marking a major milestone in our journey to expand the BENOM brand.
We could not be more excited about this huge milestone and look forward to all there is to come. Here’s more information on York Mountain, the planting process, and our future plans for BENOM Estate.
Why we chose York Mountain
We are honored to call York Mountain our home for our new estate. This Paso Robles AVA is the closest to the ocean and tends to be cooler with more maritime influence and rainfall. As with all Paso Robles AVAs, it still reaches high temperatures during the day and significantly cools off at night with up to 50ºF diurnal swing. This unique climate contributes to grapes that are more complex and of higher quality.
Additionally, our property has the ideal soil types for the varietals that we grow and produce. The property is split between limestone and clay soil– limestone is ideal for growing Rhône varietals and clay is ideal for Bordeaux varietals. This will allow us to continue to produce our current wines and expand our portfolio to include more French and Spanish-inspired blends.
Furthermore, our vineyard is on a south-facing slope which ensures that the vines will receive sun throughout the day. This optimal sun exposure is crucial for the even ripening of our grapes, leading to balanced acidity and rich, concentrated flavors in our wines.
How to plant a vineyard
There are several choices when it comes to planting a vineyard. One is the method by which you plant the vines. The traditional method prior to the Phylloxera blight was to plant a whole vine and let it grow. However, after the blight when non-native aphids, Phylloxera destroyed vineyards throughout Europe by eating the roots, viticulturalists began to change their methods.
Nowadays, wineries commonly use grafted vines. This is when a desired grape variety is grafted onto a hardy rootstock. This technique combines the best traits of both plants: the rootstock provides disease resistance and adaptability to soil conditions, while the scion, or top part, produces high-quality fruit.
For our vineyard, we decided to use a third method in which we will allow the rootstock to develop for a year before grafting the scion. This ensures that the rootstock will be able to fully establish itself before being grafted. We will then select cuttings from local properties with the ideal clones for our estate.
Our rootstock
For our rootstock, we used four types: 3309, 110, 420, and 5bb. In total, we planted 20 acres with over 20,000 individual vines. We could not have completed this without Coastal Vineyard Services, whose expertise and dedication helped us complete all 20 acres in one short week, despite the heat wave we were experiencing at the end of the month in June of 2024.
This rootstock is ideal for the Paso Robles climate and soil types, which ensures that our vines will be healthy and strong when it comes time to graft. We selected the four rootstock types to best suit the diverse soil types and elevations on the estate.
The next steps
The next step will be to allow the rootstock to develop for a year. In a year from now, we will begin grafting each vine with the varietals we plan to grow, which include Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Syrah, Grenache, Graciano, Chardonnay, and Sauvignon Blanc. The beauty of grafting is that if a certain varietal isn't thriving, it can be easily replaced with a new one through regrafting.
Once grafted, the vines will need to grow for at least three years until there is viable fruit. For our red wines, the winemaking and aging process typically takes two years so we hope to taste the first BENOM Estate wine within six or seven years.
Plans are also underway to build and open a new tasting room and winery on the estate. Construction is expected to begin within the next few years, with the goal of opening the tasting room by the end of the decade.
We could not be more grateful and thrilled for this milestone and look forward to sharing it with you. Cheers!