Section 2 - Vineyard Management

Question 1

What 3 factors influence a vineyard site selection?

Answer 1

1) Environmental conditions
2) Business considerations
3) Grape variety

Question 2

What environmental conditions are taken into account to influence a vineyard’s site selection?

Answer 2

• Average temperature
• Rainfall
• Sunshine
• Soil fertility
• Soil drainage

Question 3

What business considerations are taken into account to influence a vineyard’s site selection?

Answer 3

• Proximity to utility infrastructure
• Availability of labour
• Accessibility to machinery
• Cost of land

Question 4

Why are grape varieties taken into account when choosing a vineyard site?

Answer 4

Must suit the climatic conditions and there must be a demand for the grape.
In the EU there might be restrictions on what grapes are grown.

Question 5

How is a vineyard planted?

Answer 5

1) New vineyards are cleared of vegetation
2) Young vines from the nursery are planted by hand or machine and are often protected against animals by plastic sleeves
3) Irrigation is sometimes allowed to promote growth
4) First yield is taken the third year following planting

Question 6

When is a vineyard replanted?

Answer 6

30-50 years when they are replaced

Old vines are thought to produce premium grapes however the quantity and quality reduces over time.

Vineyards are left fallow (unplanted) for 3 years to allow recovery.

Question 7

What are the 4 techniques used to manage the vine?

Answer 7

Training
Pruning
Trellising
Density of planting

Question 8

What does training do to the vine and what are the two types?

Answer 8

Shaping the permanent wood of the vine. Both can be low trained to benefit from the heat from the soil or high trained to avoid frost.

1) Head Training
- Little permanent wood, some only a trunk. They can be spur pruned or replacement head pruned.

2) Cordon Training
Typically have trunks with one or more permanent horizontal arms or cordons.

Question 9

What are the benefits and drawbacks of cordon training?

Answer 9

Can take longer due to more permanent wood

Sturdy permanent cordon makes machine harvesting easier
Vines normally have 1-2 cordons but can be used to make larger vine structures where shoots may only grow from 4-5 cordons

Question 10

What is vine pruning?

Answer 10

Removal of unwanted leaves, canes and permanent wood.

Question 11

When does vine pruning take place?

Answer 11

Summer and winter

Both determine the number and location of buds on the vine. This is key not to be too close together.

Question 12

What are the two types of winter pruning?

Answer 12

1) Spur pruning

2) Replacement cane pruning

Question 13

What is spur pruning?

Answer 13

Short sections of one year old wood is cut to 2-3 buds.

Spurs distributed along a cordon of permanent wood (Cordon training) or around the top of the trunk (head training)

Question 14

What is replacement cane pruning?

Answer 14

Longer sections of one year old wood (8-20 buds).
One or two canes retained and tied horizontally to the trellis.

More complex and labour intensive to choose canes.

This is most common on head trained vines.
can be referred to as Guyot training (one can single, two canes double Guyot)

Question 15

What does summer pruning involve?

Answer 15

Cutting the vegetal growth and directing sugar production to the grape rather than to the shoots and leaves.

This can involve leaf stripping to reduce the canopy and to give more optimal sunlight.

Question 16

What is trellising and how does it aid canopy management?

Answer 16

Canopy - all green parts of the vine

Biggest choice in the vineyard is to decide whether to trellis the vine as this impacts how the vine grows.

Question 17

What does an untrellised vineyard look like?

Answer 17

Shoots hang down as far as the ground (bush vines - typically head trained or spur pruned)

Best used in warm, dry and sunny regions where the shade protects the grapes (Eg: Southern Rhone, France, Barossa Valley in Aus)

Question 18

Why are untrellised vineyards avoided in cool and wet regions?

Answer 18

Prevent disease due to lack of air flow
Shoots of head trained spur pruned vines are tied together at the tips to expose the vine to air and sunlight
eg: Beaujolais, France

Question 19

How are untrellised vineyards harvested?

Answer 19

By hand - cannot be machine harvested

Question 20

What does a trellised vineyard look like?

Answer 20

Posts joined together by horizontal wires.

The vine’s canes and shoots are tied to the trellis (canopy management)

Question 21

Why is it important to trellis a vineyard?

Answer 21

1) Control sunlight coming into the canopy
2) Improve air circulation (important in wet climates)
3) Aid mechanisation in the vineyard
- Grapes and leaves separated eases harvesting and spraying of insecticides and pesticides

Question 22

What does VSP stand for?

Answer 22

Vertical Shoot Positioning

Question 23

What is VSP?

Answer 23

Technique that is widely used as it can be used with replacement cane or spur pruned vines.

The shoots are trained vertically and tied to the trellis to form a simple, narrow canopy. This keeps the canopy open, derated and shade free.

In hot regions, VSP is adapted so the top of shoots flop over to create a canopy to protect fruit. This technique is used instead of untrellised canopy management to allow machine harvesting.

Question 24

What is density and how does it impact the vineyard management?

Answer 24

Number of vines planted in a given area.
Typically the number of vines per hectacre

Densities can be 1,000-10,000 vines per hectacre
One acre ~ 0.4 hectacres

Question 25

What are the factors that affect density?

Answer 25

1) Very limited water availability
2) Low levels of nutrients and sufficient rainfall
3) High levels of nutrients and sufficient rainfall
4) Yields

Question 26

How does limited water availability impact density in a vineyard?

Answer 26

Low rainfall and poor access to irrigation can mean low density is beneficial. The vine maximises the water in take and there is less competition for water.

Question 27

How do low levels of nutrients and sufficient rainfall impact vineyard density?

Answer 27

Vines that are planted at high density in these conditions have to compete for nutrients, counteracting vigourous growth with too many nutrients.

Common in European vineyards.

Number of buds at winter pruning is key:

• Too few buds, grow too vigourously
• Too many bugs, not enough energy to grow, vine struggles to ripen

Question 28

How do high levels of nutrients and sufficient rainfall impact vineyard density?

Answer 28

Fertile soils not favourable.
In the New World where these soils exist, high density planting is not enough.
Must use vines with multiple cordons or canes that are able to produce good quality grapes at high yields.

Question 29

Explain how and why the yield of a vineyard must be carefully managed.

Answer 29

Yield = Amount of grapes produced - this must be managed and predicted.

Producers must abide by legal yield requirements (EU) and meet contractual obligations.

The yield estimate is made from the number of buds after winter pruning but frost, poor fruit set, pests and disease can reduce the yield.

If the yield is too high, this can be reduced by removing immature grapes after verasion (green harvesting). This is risky as the vine can compensate by increasing the size of the retained grapes (dilutes the flavour / retain yield to original size).

Question 30

What happens when pests impact the vineyard?

Answer 30

Damage leaves which reduces photosynthesis and limits the vines ability to ripen grapes.

Question 31

What are some examples of vineyard pests?

Answer 31

1) Phylloxera
2) Nematodes
3) Birds and mammals
4) Insects

Question 32

What is a nematode?

Answer 32

Microscopic worms that attach roots and interfere with water and nutrient uptake. They can transmit vine viruses, prevention is better than cure.

To prevent, it is best to sanitise the soil before replanting and using resistant rootstock.

Question 33

Why are birds and mammals a pest in the vineyard?

Answer 33

Create half eaten and crushed grapes increase the risk of fungal diseases.
Netting is best used to protect against birds.
Fencing is needed for rabbits, boar and deer.

Question 34

Why are insects a pest in the vineyard?

Answer 34

Feed on grapes and leaves.

Use insecticides or integrated pest management to control.

Question 35

Why are the two types of fungal diseases which pose a risk in the vineyard?

Answer 35

1) Downy and powdery mildew

2) Grey rot (botrytis cinerea)

Question 36

How does downy and powdery mildew occur in a vineyard?

Answer 36

Funghi that thrives in warm, humid environments.
It impacts all green parts of the vine and the grapes.
This causes grapes to lose fruit flavour, leaving a bitter and mouldy taste.

Question 37

How do you treat a vineyard that is threatened by mildew?

Answer 37

Powdery - treated with a sulfer based spray

Downy - treated with Bordeaux mixture copper spray

Question 38

How does grey rot impact a vineyard?

Answer 38

Thrives in the damp and attacks the grapes specifically. Colour loss occurs in black grapes and this taints the flavour.

It can be beneficial in some white grape varieties (noble rot)

Question 39

How can canopy management prevent against grey rot?

Answer 39

Trellising prevents damp conditions and the need to use chemicals to prevent the rot.

Chemicals are sprayed by the tractor and are required in maritime climates with high rainfall.

Question 40

How do viruses impact the vineyard?

Answer 40

• Limit the ability for the vine to function, reduces yield and quality
• Contagious and persistent
• Spread via cuttings and nematodes
• No treatment or cures, eradicated by digging up the vines and sanitising the land

Question 41

How does bacterial disease impact the vineyard?

Answer 41

• Reduces grape quality and quantity, can kill the vine
• Spread by small insects (sharp shooters)
• No treatments or cures
• Strict quarantine and interrupting lifecycle of sharp shooter only way to prevent the spread
• Dig up the vine and sanitise land to eradicate

Question 42

What are the 3 main viticultural practices to reduce chemical use in the vineyard?1

Answer 42

1) Sustainable agriculture
2) Organic agriculture
3) Biodynamic agriculture

Question 43

What is sustainable agriculture?

Answer 43

• Manmade chemicals are restricted, not prohibited
• Understand the lifecycle of pests and monitor weather to prevent pests and outbreaks
• Time applications of chemicals to reduce spraying
• Integrated pest management - predators of pests encouraged to control pest populations
• Range of plants in the vineyard rather than a monoculture to provide habitats for pests and nutrients for vines when mowed or ploughed into the soil

Question 44

What is organic agriculture?

Answer 44

• Similar to sustainable agriculture but only a limited number of more traditional treatments for pests and diseases allowed in very small quantities
• Accreditation required from organic certification body to put organic credentials on the label
• Many bodies with different standards so some may have stricter conditions than others
• All must undergo a period of conversion working to organic standards before certification

Question 45

What is biodynamic agriculture?

Answer 45

• Based on the work of Rudolf Steiner and Maria Thun
• Organic practises combined with philosophy and cosmology
• Vineyard soil as a connected system with Earth, air and other planets
• Adapt grape growing to coincide with cycles of plants, moor and stars
• Homeopathic remedies ‘preparations’ used to fertilise soil, treat diseases and ward off pests
• Certification bodies exist for biodynamic agriculture

Question 46

At what point is a vineyard harvested?

Answer 46

VERASION = When the grapes have fully ripened, signalled by a change in skin colour. When sugar, acid, flavour, tannin and climate tie together for perfect ripeness.

As the grapes ripen, the sugar levels rise and the acid drops. Grapes develop flavour and tannins become less bitter.

Monitoring sugar levels key but no hard and fast rule of time to harvest.

Poor weather can bring the harvest forward.

Grapes can be hand or machine harvested depending on labour, topography of vineyard and weather etc.

Question 47

What is machine harvesting?

Answer 47

Shakes the trunk of the vine and collect the berries as they fall

Leaves the stalks behind

Not selective (collects damaged grapes, can shake off other matter (MOG) such as leaves, insects and other contaminants which later have to be removed in the winery)

Question 48

What is the main advantage of machine harvesting?

Answer 48

Speed

• Key when the harvest is threatened by poor weather or when grapes can go overripe quickly
• Work through the night so that cool grapes are sent to the winery
• Saves energy and money to lower grape temperatures pre-fermentation and slows oxidation which brings off flavours

Question 49

What is the main disadvantage of machine harvesting?

Answer 49

Can only be used on flat / gentle slopes

Only suitable for grapes which cannot be easily damaged

Cannot be used for wines requiring whole bunches eg: Beaujolais and Champagne

Question 50

What is hand harvesting?

Answer 50

Pickers cut individual bunches of grapes with secateurs

Question 51

What is the advantage of hand harvesting?

Answer 51

Less damaged grapes / better quality of picking

Retains the grape stem - produce clean juice in white wine making which is key for fermentation in red

Helps pick grapes with noble rot

Question 52

What are the disadvantages of hand harvesting?

Answer 52

Slow and labour intensive

Expensive

Only option in steep vineyards
eg: Douro in Portugal, Mosel in Germany, Northern Rhone in France