Ch 5 Vineyard Establishment Flashcards
Vineyard Establishment
What are key considerations in vineyard establishment?
- Site selection
- Soil preparation
- Choice of planting materials
- Nutrient management
- Water management
- Canopy management
Vineyard Establishment
What are the main considerations in site selection?
○ Style/quality and price of wine being made
○ Natural resources
○ Cost
○ Laws - align business goals with wines allowed, yield restrictions and other rules
Vineyard Establishment
What are the cost components to consider in site selection?
§ Cost of land
§ impact of location/layout/topography -e.g., min cost of frost avoidance, sites prone to pests/disease
§ ability to mechanize
§ irrigation requirements
§ Site accessibility
§ limit risk of oxygenation/microbial spoilage
§ Proximity to sources of labor, supplies, customers
Vineyard Establishment
What are site selection considerations for high volume vs premium wine producers?
Quality consideration in different climates
○ High vol/inexpensive - consistently produce high yield cheaply -> flat, fertile, warm dry climate; flat = mechanize, dry and warm = less disease pressure/lower costs
○ Premium - prioritize healthy, ripe grapes vs costs; max ability to ripen in cool climates (aspect/slope) or cooler sites in warm climates (altitude, diurnal, breezes)
Vineyard Establishment
What is terroir and some considerations/aspects to how the term is used?
○ No precise definition - generally, it is the claim that distinctiveness of a wine is due to sense of place it is grown/made
○ Physical definition - wine shows characteristics that relate to a particular place, sometimes very specific
○ Human factors - human interventions can be included - PDOs define planting restrictions, yield limits, trellising, etc
○ Marketing claims related to geo makeup of soil - contested by scientists - photosynth is main driver of vine growth and compound synthesis/development + ferm transformation
○ Soil mapping/data analysis being used to further explore
Vineyard Establishment
What are the main factors growers need to assess/manage soil preparation?
○ Drainage
○ Soil structure
○ Mineral composition
○ Topography
Vineyard Establishment
What does soil structure influence?
○ Root penetration, Drainage, Nutrient holding capacity, Workability
Vineyard Establishment
What considerations are there for soil preparation (things best done before planting)?
○ if previously planted, is there a plough pan (impervious layer) - needs to be broken down before planting for easier cultivation
○ Old roots - need to be burned for disease prevention
○ Weeds - use herbicide before site planted
○ Use fertilizer/compost/manure to increase nutrients and organic matter - and ploughing to incorporate
○ Adjust soil pH - if too acidic, plough in lime (Beaujolais); for non-acidic soil plough in sulfur to dec pH
○ Landscaping - to change topography if necessary - expensive
Vineyard Establishment
What are 3 main decisions growers need to make related to planting materials?
- variety
- clone
- rootstock
Vineyard Establishment
What climate/growing environ-related factors do grape growers need to consider when choosing grape varieties (and examples)
○ Time of budding - frost risk
○ Duration/timing of annual life cycle - early ripen var (PN, Chard) better for cool climates because they will ripen before wet, cold weather in fall; later ripen var better in warm climates (Mouvedre). Early ripen var in warm climates gain sugar and lose acid too quickly.
○ Drought tolerance - Grenache best in dry climates
○ Resistance to disease - some var less prone to fungal disease and need less monitoring/care in damp climates. CS less prone to grey rot vs Merlot - why they are good blending partners in Bordeaux
○ Winter hardiness - Riesling and Vidal tolerant of very cold winters
○ Vigor - if high vigor var like SB grown in fertile soil, will require more management to avoid excessive growth
Vineyard Establishment
What other factors aside from climate/growing environ do growers need to consider when choosing grape varieties?
○ Style of wine - easy drinking vs age worthy
○ Yield - key concern for high vol producers
○ Cost - Some var like PN more challenging and costly
○ Law - match variety to desired labeling based on law
○ Availability - some places have quarantines when putting in new planting materials; some high demand clones/var may be sold out
○ Market demand - match grape var planted with target market demand and route to market.
Vineyard Establishment
What can a grower do to quickly take advantage of hot market trend; what are adv and disadv?
○ do head grafting of new var on existing trunk to more quickly grow
○ Adv - produce fruit more quickly than new planting; disadv - existing rootstock may have been chosen based on orig grape var
Vineyard Establishment
How is clone choice similar/different vs grape variety choice?
○ Most of the decisions are the same when buying clones from nursery, though it is less impactful than overall grape var choice and less impacted by law and consumer demand
Vineyard Establishment
Why are rootstocks chosen and where do their unique characteristics come from?
○ Protect vine from phylloxera and other pests/disease
○ Char of rootstocks linked to its parentage
○ Many rootstocks are hybrids of 2 diff species to take adv of beneficial char of each species
Vineyard Establishment
What criteria do growers use in choosing rootstocks?
Pest resistance
Water
Soil pH
Vigor
Rootstocks
Fill in grid with levels of tolerance
Rootstocks
Fill in grid with rootstock numbers
