Heekin - An unlikely vineyard: the education of a farmer and her quest for terroir

PRAISE FOR An Unlikely Vineyard

An Unlikely Vineyard is a rare blend of scholarship, storytelling, and poetry. Deirdre Heekins enthralling tale of sinking roots into her land will inspire and enable anyone who ever dreamed of growing food, making wine, or bringing beauty out of the soil around them. This meditation on the cultivation of place is an elegant rallying cry in a world that too often settles for placelessness.

Rowan Jacobsen, author, American Terroir and Apples of Uncommon Character

Deirdre Heekin has written a colossal book heresomething of a monument in its field. The author tells, in her earnest way, the entire story of establishing a biodynamic farm and orchard and garden and vineyard under improbable circumstances. An Unlikely Vineyard speaks to a determination and passion fueled by Deirdres wonderful, stubborn love. The sheer level of detail may intimidate some casual readers, yet those who do read it will surely concur that its going to become one of the Great Books of the movement.

Terry Theise, author, Reading Between the Wines

Deirdre Heekins new book is a rural romance thats part memoir, part how-to, part coming-of-age story. As carefully thought out and set down as the neat rows of La Crescent, Blaufrankisch, and Riesling vines that populate the unlikely vineyard of the title, its sure to be welcomed by a new generation of farmer-philosophers who will find not just inspiration but direction in its pages.

Stephen Meuse, Americas Test Kitchen Radio

Not only does Deirdre Heekin take us on her own, personal path to this unlikely vineyard, but she also offers usas a vigneronnethe chance to understand something more universal: that authentic wine, with soul, can be crafted if one observes and takes care of ones terroir and vines. By choosing a most demanding yet most rewarding way of farmingthe biodynamic way in Vermontshe is an inspiration both for farmers and for every wine lover who seeks in the taste of a grape a place, a landscape, a climate, a history.

Pascaline Lepeltier, master sommelier, Rouge Tomate, New York City

In An Unlikely Vineyard, Deirdre Heekin spins a wonderfully practical account of realizing her vision of a living farm with a table at its center. Her tale balances rural romance with the real concerns of sinking hands into dirt, of partnering with nature to bring beauty and life to her unlikely vineyard in the hills of Vermont. Filled with tips and inspiration for the existing gardener, it will have armchair green thumbs ready to run off and buy a tractor.

Christy Frank, owner, Frankly Wines, New York City

An Unlikely Vineyard

The EDUCATION of a FARMER and HER QUEST for TERROIR

Deirdre Heekin

Foreword by ALICE FEIRING

CHELSEA GREEN PUBLISHING

WHITE RIVER JUNCTION, VERMONT

Copyright 2014 by Deirdre Heekin.

All rights reserved.

Unless otherwise noted, all photographs copyright 2014 by Deirdre Heekin. Photographs on pages 183 and 372 are copyright 2014 by Caleb Barber. No part of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form by any means without permission in writing from the publisher.

Project Manager: Patricia Stone

Project Editor: Benjamin Watson

Copy Editor: Deborah Heimann

Proofreader: Laura Jorstad

Indexer: Margaret Holloway

Designer: Kimberly Glyder

Printed in the United States of America.

First printing October, 2014.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 14 15 16 17 18

Our Commitment to Green Publishing Chelsea Green sees publishing as a tool for cultural change and ecological stewardship. We strive to align our book manufacturing practices with our editorial mission and to reduce the impact of our business enterprise on the environment. We print our books and catalogs on chlorine-free recycled paper, using vegetable-based inks whenever possible. This book may cost slightly more because it was printed on paper that contains recycled fiber, and we hope youll agree that its worth it. Chelsea Green is a member of the Green Press Initiative (www.greenpressinitiative.org), a nonprofit coalition of publishers, manufacturers, and authors working to protect the worlds endangered forests and conserve natural resources. An Unlikely Vineyard was printed on paper supplied by RR Donnelley that contains postconsumer recycled fiber.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Heekin, Deirdre.

An unlikely vineyard : the education of a farmer and her quest for terroir / Deirdre Heekin.

pages cm

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-60358-457-9 (hardcover) ISBN 978-1-60358-458-6 (ebook)

1. ViticultureVermont. 2. Viticulturists Vermont. 3. Farm lifeVermont.

4. TerroirVermont. I. Title.

SB387.76.V5H44 2014

634.809743dc23

2014018957

Chelsea Green Publishing

85 North Main Street, Suite 120

White River Junction, VT 05001

(802) 295-6300

www.chelseagreen.com

Il sole sei tu. La luna sei tu. Il vento sei tu. Antonelli Venditti, musician.

FOREWORD

I t was a chilly winter evening in New York City. Several visiting French and Italian winemakers crammed into my very vintage, rickety, railroad apartment on the edge of Little Italy on the night before a big tasting event. When wine people converge, blind guessing games commence and I wanted to play. I chose my bottle. I plunked it inside a knee sock so no one could see the label and poured the last of it into glasses. What do you think? I asked.

THESE WERE PEOPLE who made the kind of wines I wrote about: no additives, as close to natural as possible, and from organic or biodynamic viticulture. They recognized what was in the bottle as one of our own and then the guesses started to pop. California! someone decided. No, another said, its Old World, it must be... Burgundy? But with those tannins and those roses? Someone else interrupted, it had to be a Nebbiolo from Piemonte, not from the hills, but with that acidity, the mountains. Cherishing the moment, I leaned up against my tub, dramatically pulled off the sock as I announced, Nebbiolo from Mars!

They looked at me curiously, then I gave them the goods. The Vergennes Rouge we tasted was made from a grape they had never heard of called Marquette. The winery was la garagista and the wine was made by an American vigneronne, Deirdre Heekin. After the information I paused, looking around at the confused faces, then I pulled the punch line,