Vineyard Management

Question 1

what are the considerations in selecting a vineyard site

Answer 1

1. cost of land eg burgundy
2. location and topography of land eg frost pocket.
3. slope and the use of machines
4. access to winery to avoid oxydation of grape in delivery.
5. proximity to towns where customers and labours are located.

Question 2

how do you interprete terroir?

Answer 2

1. physical definition: climate, aspect and elevation, soil type and drainage,
2. cultural definition: PDO stipulation on variety and yield
3. marketing: geological make up of soil eg chalky taste of chard grown in burgundy (contested)
4. over zealous wine making eg ageing in new oak and over ripe grape

Question 3

what are the considerations when you are choosing plant materials in warm dry region in the EU with an aim to produce high volume inexpensive wine?

Answer 3

1. annual life cycle of the varierty: late ripening eg mouvedre so that not over ripe with acid losing too fast. this will be the case for early bud and ripening variety like chard and PN.
2. warm dry climate means the vine may face the problem of water stress. Variety like grenache is resistent to drought and is thus plated in inland Spain eg Ribera del Duero, south Rhone, where rainfall is limited.
3. Yield: grenache can produce high yield
4. If EU law is permissible to grow the variety in that region.
5. If the variety and style and price range of wine has a decent demand in the market.
6. The availability of the clones (quarantine reason).

Question 4

how would you choose rootstock in view of the following problems at your vineyard? pest, waterlogged, acidity, too vigor

Answer 4

I would choose to use the following rootstock for the reasons:
1. pest: Ramsey or Dog ridge that have a good records in tackling phylloxera and nock nematode.
2. waterlogged: riparia Gloire as it is a water resistent species. 110R and 114R are drought resistent.
3. pH level: 110R can tolerate high acid soil (low pH). 41B high pH.
4. vigor: 114R to accomodate high vigor problem to produce high yield wine with high acidity like sparkling wine (a matter of style). 420R is good for low vigor vine to help ripening.

Question 5

how you would manage the nutrient level and weed control for your vineyards designed for organic farming and conventional farming producing high volume wine

Answer 5

for organic farming, I would apply manual organic fertilizers (which is cheap or almost free) such as fresh or compost of plants and animal that can improve soil structure and its ability to hold nutrients and water. The effect is slower as organic nutrients need microbio organisms to decompose them to inorganic form. Also, they are bulk and are expoenive to handle. In addition, cultivation can be used to control weed growth by cutting its root structure together with the effect of incorporating fertilizer nd cover crop to soil. Animal grasing is another method to control weed growth. They feed on the weed. however, they need to be cared for and used in the season when grape fruit is not available to them and vine have to be trained high so that they can not eat them. Moreover, cover crop like cereal and legume can be grown between vines compete with vine for nutrients that can control its vigor. It can suppress the growth of weed, which could become fertilizer to vine (green manual). Finally, mulching (cover crop) can be used to control weed growth, such as bark chips and stalk, which could also become fertilizer to vine as they are biodegradable. For conventional farming, the methods above can be used. Others like chemical fertilizers can also be adopted, which are more tailored made and concentrated. They are cheaper in terms of handling. chemical herbicide can be used to kill weed more directly and easier (pre emergent, contact, systematic).

Question 6

how would you choose a irrigation system for vineyards located on a flat land with plenty of water supply producing high volume wine v on a slope with limited supply of water producing premium quality of wine

Answer 6

the former: i would choose flood irigation or channel irrigation using sluice or furrow to store water and flood the vineyard, which water flowed away via the well drained soil (sandy). It is cheaper to set up and maintain the system and can be used in flat land. the latter: I would set up pipes or sprinklers close to the vines. during dry warm growing season between fruit set and veraison, water is regulatedly supplied to the vines in small amount to produced a bit o water stressed condition. It will lower yield (reduce grape size but increase skin to fruit ratio) but enhance quality of grape in terms of concentration, aroma and color particularly for black grapes.

Question 7

how would you plan and manage (canopy) your vineyard if it is located on a slope in a warm climate with sufficient rainfall planning to grow high yield vine

Answer 7

i would plan the row orientation up and down the slope enabling machine working (they will not slip otherwise) while west side of the vineyard is trained higher to provide shade against the afternoon sun leading to sunburn (avoid east west row orientation in north hemisphere to avoid sun burn at south side). I would grow moderate to low density (wider between row distance). Train high the vine with complex training (and trellis) system such as Lyre so as to provide more space (air ventilation) and shade (against the sun) for the high vigor vine to grow. These practices allow machine use (though skiled labor for the training and trellis are required) and is cheaper to maintain.

Question 8

Identify the hazards that might occur due to low temperature and how would you find a solution to overcome them

Answer 8

freeze (-20c): grow closer to big water body plant vine where snow settling most thick insulating, building up soil around graft uphilling burrying vine graft use winter hardy species concord, vidal riesling, frost (cold air on ground freezing vine): avoid frost pocket, slope, late budding species winter prune delay budding, train high, bare soil instrad of cover crop, sprinklers aspersion, air fan, oil heater wax candle, hail netting rocket grow in several plots distant away

Question 9

Identify various types of pests threatening the yield and quality of fruit of vine that usually happen under humid conditions

Answer 9

phylloxera american vine species V. riparia rootstocks, x nematodes fumigate soil damsey dogridge rootstock, grapemoaf bacillius thuringensis insecticde, x spider mites springkler covercrop pesticide, x birds netting, x mammals fencing, x powdery mildew fungicide open canopy, downry mildew bordeaux mix open canopy, eutypa dieback pruning rain fungicide biological control, phomopsis cane & leaf spot fungicide canopy man airflow, x ESCA pruning, x pierce’s disease vector sharpshooter, x grapevine yellow vector leafhopper, x fanleaf nematode, leafroll mealy bug like humid

Question 10

what make you decide to use machine harvest from hand harvest

Answer 10

• there is no need to organise people. machine enables the harvest time to be optimal.
• machine can harvest a big volume of wine in a short peiod of time to avoid oxydation.