Desert Rose Ranch Arabians

Our good friends Fran & Joe Dragone assisted us in picking our first official vineyard crop.  It was an arduous task taking several hours and we greatly appreciate their efforts.  We then took the grapes to Rappahannock Vineyards for processing and enjoyed a well deserved lunch and rest while watching the grapes being pressed.  Fran & Joe have even volunteered to come back again next year where we hope to have a larger crop and a “few” more pickers involved.

We planted an additional acre of grapes called “Crimson Cabernet” this year and are excited about the potential outcome.  The grape variety is new to the state and is a true cross between Norton which is Virginia’s original variety and the world famous  Cabernet Savignon.  The hope of the cross is that the Norton part will help make it impervious to normal East Coast diseases while retaining the renoun Cab quality.  Stay tuned for future updates.  

We have planted two small vineyards here at the Desert Rose Ranch, totaling about an acre, and we picked our first experimental crop in 2006. The first vines planted in 2004 are called “Norton” and were the original Virginia wine grape. These grapes are being reintroduced back into the state after becoming nearly extinct as a result of Prohibition. The Norton is a very powerful grape that is nearly impervious to the normal diseases prevalent on the east coast related to molds and mildews. Because of its strong character, we are considering making Port from this grape and we produced a small batch this year as an initial trial. Our second vineyard planted in 2006 is Cabernet Franc and is a grape fast becoming Virginia’s signature red variety. We have yet to determine whether we will expand the vineyard into a larger family operation but we do expect to have a small marketable product perhaps in 2008. Stay tuned for future updates on this part of our operation.