This post is fascinating, @jeanwandimi! The photos, by you and @njoromuts, are informative and evocative. I congratulate you on a successful piece.

I manage the beer and wine department at a grocery supermarket in central Texas. I've learned some about grape varietals and grape farming. I've read about the techniques used at other tropical vineyards. I'm very curious about the Leleshwa operation.

The vineyard land looks fairly flat, with some regular low mounding between the rows, and a cover plant "holding" the mounds. This mounding is good practice, I think, helping with dew collection during droughts, and runoff control during rains. It raises a question: Before the vineyard was planted, was this land tilled?

More precisely, how long was it tilled, how often, and how long did it go without tilling before grapes were planted? Some have suggested that grapes are more successful in the tropics where tilling has been minimal, due to interaction between grapevine roots and the hyphae of beneficial fungi in relatively undisturbed soil.

Your article made me very curious about the people involved, so I visited the wine producer's website. It identified Pius Ngugi as the founder, and his son Mbugua Ngugi as the current vineyard manager. For their family, nut growing has long been the mainstay of their business. The website also had a Yummy Magazine article naming James Farquharson as one of the brand's early winemakers — he had already acquired some fame at Stellenbosch in South Africa — and Emma Nderitu as the current head winemaker.

Were nuts grown on the same land before grapes were grown there?

The other question that arises involves the grape varietals that are planted at Leleshwa. Sauvignon Blanc and Shiraz are mentioned in your article. The website also mentions the use of Merlot for blending. I would love to know what other varietals are grown there.

In any case, thanks very much for awakening my curiosity with a superb article!