Luxury Insider

Let's now tackle the equipment on the property necessary for cultivating the soil and taking care of the wine. If you are in the Alsace region, or north of the Rhone river where it's often so steep you need a lifeline to avoid free-falling into the valley below, all the work is manual and this means heavy labor use - and therefore, heavy labor costs. In some cases, some vineyards employ the use of a horse in terrains where no machinery will be able to traverse.

Most vine growers can use a tractor though. Two-wheel drive tractors are commonly used, but can come to a standstill during the winter months when the terrain becomes muddy. Also, if you want to plow deep you will likely need four-wheel drive.

What other equipment do you need to accompany the tractor? A special 7- or 9-blade plow put together on a square iron bar is used in winter and spring. What is very popular as well is the “rotative,” which is a blade with hydraulically-driven rotating teeth so grass and bad weeds as well as lumps of soil and clay are disintegrated, so that the resulting soil is perfect and looks beautiful in between the rows.

Most vineyards today use herbicides to fight grass and bad weeds. Ever heard of Roundup weed killer, commonly used in private gardens? For smaller vineyards applying herbicide is not much extra labor if you want to avoid using chemicals repellants, and they are better for the soil and the environment, and more importantly, your grapes.Indeed, it has become a popular trend to avoid using chemicals in the vineyard. And if you follow specific regulations you will receive a certificate, earning the right to call yourself a "biodynamic" wine producer. (On the whole, there are not many winemakers going this route though.)

You will also need a spraying machined pulled behind a tractor. The first time for this is a couple of weeks after bud break, and then every 12 to 14 days until “verasion,” which is when the grapes change color. After that you can spray them less often. The leaves and grapes are very susceptible to two different fungi named downy mildew and powdery mildew. There is a handful of other diseases to fight against or to take cautions to avoid.

On a final note, if you are buying a vineyard, do not hesitate to do all the work yourself. That is the only way to become a wine maker and understand all the complex subtleties involved in making the wine. Of course, you may well need someone to show you or instruct you in the beginning. And as long as you have some experienced people on hand to ask them about any issues that could arise, you will probably do alright.

Or, you could simply lie back in your sun chair enjoying drinking your own wine but never understand the magic of wine making...

Good Luck!