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Agriculture, grapes, Idaho, Indian Creek Winery, Malbec, Tempranillo, wine
Newcomers and visitors to Idaho are often surprised to discover a flourishing wine industry. In the late 70s Idaho had one winery that I know of. Now there are over 50 wineries around the state, many clustered in the southwestern region near Boise.
Many of the wineries are small and must think creatively to keep costs down. One way to boost loyalty and defray labor costs is to invite the public to participate in wine making chores like grape stomping and planting.
One of my favorite local wineries, thanks to their hospitality during my Sideways by Bike tour many years ago (and, by the way, the subject of my first blog post), is one such small winery. Indian Creek Winery has been showcasing splendid Pinot Noirs and a host of other varieties and blends for 34 years. In that time, vines grow old and unable to resist pests and diseases. When their productivity declines, it’s time to replace them.
This year, the owners purchased a batch of Malbec and Tempranillo plants from Washington. It’s imperative to get those little guys into the soil as soon as possible. Planting thousands of plants is daunting. But even a black thumb like me can learn the basics.

We started with machine cut rows, marked with bamboo stakes to indicate plant placement. Part of our crew shoveled holes at each of the stake marks.

The vines were shipped in bundles with their roots encased in damp sawdust. The next crew grabbed bundles of vines and trimmed their bushy, wild roots.

A batch of Tempranillo vines.

Trimming the roots also helps stimulate growth. A trimmed plant is placed at each hole. The third crew carefully situates the plant and piles loose dirt around it, tamping the dirt down and piling up more till the plant is standing proudly.
Finally, winemaker Mike McClure replaces the drip irrigation lines, ensuring that each plant is lined up with an emitter. A finished row looks like this:

It’s a little hard to see those stalks sticking out of the ground. But they will grow quickly.
Conveniently, at lunch time, the roiling clouds that had been chasing each other across the sky opened up. A light drizzle became a downpour. We hustled back to the storage area adjacent to the tasting room where founders Bill and Mui Stowe greeted us with one of Mui’s famous, delicious lunches.

Rice, barbecued chicken, and a to-die-for peanut curry sauce, cucumber salad with Thai chili peppers, and wine of course!
Mui is constantly on the move. When she’s not in the kitchen cooking up batches of food for hungry workers, she’s tending the extensive gardens of the winery grounds, or she’s helping with whatever else is going on grapewise. I hear she’s a force to be reckoned with on bottle labeling days.

Appropriately enough wine barrels oversaw our eating frenzy.

A little bling, anyone?
The rain gave up while we were eating. After a few more hours in the field, we ran out of grapes vines to plant!

A good day’s work . . .

Deserves a reward!
My efforts were generously rewarded with two bottles of wine of my choice.
recently saw a movie about the US vineyards winning over France, very interesting.I think it was called “Bottle Shock”. Like your photos esp the food spread…yum!
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Nice to hear from you Jane. I’ve seen Bottle Shock. It was interesting. Ya, the food was great. Hard to go back to work, though, after such an ample spread.
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no kidding, I overate last night, know what you mean.
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Ok really???? I’ve golfed many times with Mui! She is a wonderful person! You’re going to have to hook me up with these activities you do in 4 years when I retire!!
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You bet, Dawn! They are all a really neat family. A marvelous blend of talent.
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That is surprising, indeed. They produce wine in places you never thought of. Yesterday I’ve read about the phantastic wines they grow in Southern Sweden. Today I’ll post a new blog post about my vacation on German wine destination Mosel. 🙂 So wine is all around, you see. 🙂
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Sweden! Really? Wow. That I would never have guessed. I’d have thought it too cold there. It’s very warm here in the summer and down near the river, there are good cool updrafts at night that the grapes need. I believe my grandfather was a huge fan of the wines from the Mosel region. I’ll look forward to your next post.
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It’s always great to touch soil, or muck, as we used to call it when I was boy. I still love the scent.
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I’ve never been a farmer or a gardener. But these volunteer experiences I’ve been doing have gotten me more in touch with the muck. Yesterday I spent a backbreaking day of pulling wild mustard weed out of a Bureau of Land Management “test garden” out in the high desert. It was a lovely day for it, not to hot, lots of clouds. I was a dirty mess when I got home. What I noticed while showering was that the smell of the soil that I was washing off was not so different from the smell of horses (which I’m very familiar with.) I’d never made that connection before. But it makes sense. Horses love to roll in dirt, then when they sweat, they heat up that soil smell. Never to late to learn.
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there’s something about hands-on working in the soil that gives a closer connection to mother earth, and we might be exhausted at the end of a day, but we feel better in spirit and soul.
here in the cloud forest at my friends’ property, the rain cuts my work days short on most afternoons, and i often think that no child of the outdoors can get dirtier/funkier than the drenched-animal i resemble before hitting the shower/tub.
now if i could have a glass of that wine to enhance my healing thermal soak…..
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Oh yes, I good shower after a day of work. What a blessing! I don’t suppose there are any wineries near the cloud forest. How about beer? Are there breweries in your neck of the world?
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Idaho is an awesome state! You have so many interesting experiences! love the pictures!
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I love everything about Idaho except its politics. And the heat down here in the south. But, ya, I sure enjoy having the autonomy in retirement to try all sorts of fun things!
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Yes you have the heat there!
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It’s coming on with a vengeance this week. I hate it.
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yes it is heating up here too!
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ha.. i would work for wine! great post, which made me hungry b/c i ‘missed’ dinner last night and have not had breakfast yet. i wonder if they’ll serve bbq chicken and wine at this hostal for breakfast?
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Ha. I bet you’d get a strange look if you asked for that for breakfast!
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WOW… looks like a great trip! You joke but surely your ‘black thumb’ is green by now!
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I wouldn’t go so far as to say green, maybe gray?
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What a great opportunity. I would work for wine too.
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Heh, heh! It doesn’t take a whole lot to convince me to try something new. A bottle or two of wine is a real bonus.
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Me too. I think we are going to be great friends.
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Living in California wine country, it’s easy to forget that some amazing wines come from other places in the U.S. I’ve been to Oregon and Washington many times – but now I have to go to Idaho. Thanks for the illumination! Check out our wine country blog and follow us back if you like what you see: http://www.topochinesvino.com
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