That's how fertile the land is at Fajã dos Padres, a small cove on the south coast of Madeira – known on the island as the place where the famous Malmsey vines survived phylloxera.
It's as clear as it can be". Even at Napa's Signorello Estate, where a building housing the tasting room burned to the ground Sunday night, 40 acres of decades-old vines survived, owner Ray Signorello Jr. said Thursday.
"Even so, we're surprised at how well some vines survive using less water," he says.
And it takes careful tilling and pinpoint soil management to make sure the vines survive the hottest months.
That the vine survived and flourished without light or tending was like a miracle in a holiday movie: a maudlin plot device that, despite my better judgment, heartened me and caused me to hold onto hopeful thoughts for the new year.
Of 108 species of shrubs and vines, 16 survived.
In trials, the vines have survived winter temperatures of minus 35, which is useful if this climate-change thing takes an unexpected turn.
Vines is survived by his wife of 62 years, Verle; a son, Ellsworth Vines Jr., of San Diego, and a daughter, Edie Vines, of Orange, Calif.
Lavinia has a full range, but also stocks some of France's most revered Champagnes, like the 1982 Salon Blanc de Blancs, Le Mesnil, for $2,800, or the simple 1997 for $420, and Bollinger's 1999 Blanc de Noirs, made from some of the few vines that survived the phylloxera plague of the mid-19th century, for about $1,100.
The peninsula's softer climate, for example, allow its vines to survive New Jersey's winters better than some vines planted 30 miles north, they say.
Once established in a deep soil with adequate water retention characteristics, grapevines produce root systems several meters deep enabling the vines to survive severe water deficits.
