Nunes Vineyard is owned and operated by Fred Nunes and his wife, Wendy Fowler Nunes. The land is forty three acres of shallow sandy clay loam at the edge of the bench, a gentle slope of twenty feet from Old Redwood Highway, to Highway 101. Dormant bench grafts on SO4 rootstock were planted in the Spring of 2000. Ten blocks (thirty five acres total) of Pinot Noir, four Dijon clones, are cane pruned and spread on a tall vertical trellis.

Planning began in 1997. Vineyard blocks were plotted to avoid disturbing twenty five large Oak trees. To maintain the terroir, only the top twenty four inches of shallow soil that Mother Nature spent millions of years building was mixed with four tons/acre of lime to improve soil structure and acidity. SO4's shallow roots allow Nunes to de-vigor the vines using careful irrigation.   Vineyard Blocks (PDF) 

This is one of the tallest trellis systems in the county, seven feet, three inches by design, providing 84,000 square feet of canopy per acre, compared to the 42,000 square feet of a standard VSP trellis. This allows for spreading canes up and down from a center fruit zone without layering more than one-and-a-half leaves, and eliminates the need to hedge a balanced vine. The eight-foot canopy height and eight-foot isle width provide the one-to-one ratio needed for the right amount of sunlight on the fruit. The tall trellis and the row orientation also hang the fruit out to dry as if the bunches were clipped to a clothesline.

With buds bursting earlier than most other vineyards in the Russian River Valley, and earlier veraison triggered partly by careful irrigation, there is plenty of time for canes to lignify, and for berries to develop all of their phenolics and ripen tannins — longer hang-time, earlier.

The vineyard operates with three permanent employees along with Fred and Wendy. Additional crew is added when needed.     

Above is Nunes mowing in 1999 and Dorothy's block March 2004. Lot's happened between:    Establishment Photos