WHAT WE DO

Jewel of the Blue Ridge Consulting offers consultation, design, client education and installation services for sustainable organic mountain viticulture.  Owners Chuck & Jeannie Blethen have 20 years of experience with selecting, propagating, growing, harvesting and processing organic grapes.   Jewel of the Blue Ridge Consulting was conceived as a leading edge service to help landowners respond to the need to provide a sustainable crop far into the future by building a long-term heritage farm crop of grapes. Proper grape selection provides the opportunity to grow grapes for many markets including wine production, table grapes, raisins, jams/jellies/preserves, juice, and provides a source of special herbal extract from grape seeds and skins.

TYPES OF SERVICES

• “Consultation” An initial visit to begin a design process and session to provide as much information and insight as possible to help the landowners plan the vineyard themselves. Typical outcomes include a review of long-term objectives for the vineyard, grape variety selection, site review and selection, soil sample collection or instruction, and vineyard layout plan. $150 - $350

• “Design” A process, usually taking place over 3 to 18 months (depending on the property size and other variables), during which we meet multiple times in order to refine a detailed, long-term grape growing plan, including grape selection, root stock sourcing, propagation techniques for Mountain Muscadines, approach for vineyard expansion, vineyard access roads, irrigation if needed, as well as selecting posts and trellis systems appropriate for the grape varieties.  $1500 - $2500
  
  
• “Calculation/Preparation of Material List” for vineyard installation (posts,wire, anchors, tensioners, etc.) - $200
  
  
• Installation Supervision  Supervising the installation of the vineyard that we’ve envisioned through our design process in collaboration with the vineyard owner.  Organic viticulture systems require a unique range of sub-contractors, materials, and techniques that we’ve assembled to create beautiful as well as functional results. Typical is supervision of installation of posts and trellis systems at $250 per day.
  
  
• Training and Pruning Vines  Sessions can be arranged for $250 per day when it is time to beginning training/pruning the vines.
  
  
• Winery Design  Preparation of a winery layout and preparation of an Equipment/Materials list. $50/hour.
  
  
• Sourcing Value-added Equipment for processing after harvest. $50 hour
  

• “Client Education” ranges from information that we convey during consultation or design sessions to actual private classes in specific viticulture topics that we have organized and made available from an assortment of instructors. $250 - $1200

• Alternatively, we can work up a fixed price per month, per year, per season, per vineyard. We are open to any reasonable pricing approach that works for the client.

WHAT IS SUSTAINABLE VITICULTURE?

Sustainable viticulture is the cultivation of grapevines using sustainable farming methods including the techniques described as natural farming, organic farming and/or bio-dynamic farming. The end result is providing a heritage crop that will produce for 50 years or more once the vineyard has been established.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

Conventional viticulture as practiced by most of the United States utilizes toxic chemicals to grow grapes. Most vineyard managers spray their grapes from 15 to 24 times a season to keep the grapes alive long enough to harvest a crop. The pesticides, herbicides and fungicides used in these practices are harmful to the environment. The residual chemicals in the grapes and value-added products are not healthy for consumers.

Jewel of the Blue Ridge Consulting is a founding member of the Sustainable Appalachian Viticulture Institute