Vineyard Management

Question 1

What does a grape grower have to consider when choosing a site for a vineyard?

Answer 1

Environmental conditions - rainfall, sunlight, soil type
Grape variety
Access to utility infrastructure - power, water, workforce

Question 2

Vine Training

Answer 2

This refers to the shape of permanent wood. There are two types of training.
Low trained to retain heat from soil
High trained to prevent frost

Question 3

Head Training

Answer 3

These vines have very little permanent wood, some only the trunk. Others have a few short arms growing from the top of the trunk. They can other be spur pruned or replacement cane pruned

Question 4

Cordon Training

Answer 4

These vines tend to have one or more permanent horizontal arms or cordons. They are usually spur pruned
Cordon training takes longer to establish because of the greater around of permanent wood
Its sturdy permanent cordon shoots positioned along its length makes mechanisation in the vineyard such as machine harvest easier to achieve.

Question 5

Vine pruning

Answer 5

Removal of unwanted leaves, canes and permanent wood
Shapes the vine and limits its size
Takes place every summer and winter

Question 6

Winter pruning

Answer 6

Main purpose is to determine the number and location of buds for coming growing season
Important to make sure buds are not too close together for canopy management purposes

Question 7

Spur Pruning

Answer 7

Short sections of one year old wood that have been cut to two or three buds
Spurs are either distributed along a cordon of permanent wood or around the top of the trunk

Question 8

Replacement Cane Pruning

Answer 8

Typically only one or two canes are retained and tied horizontally to trellis wire.
It’s more complex than spur pruning
Sometimes referred to as guyot training
Single guyot if one cane retained
Double guyot if two are retained

Question 9

Canes

Answer 9

Longer sections of one year old wood and tend to have between 8-20 buds

Question 10

Summer Pruning

Answer 10

Involves trimming the canopy to restrict vegetative growth and direct sugar production to the grapes rather than growth of shoots and leaves
Also strips leaves so that grapes get direct exposure to the sunlight

Question 11

Untrellised Vineyards

Answer 11

This is where there is no trellis in place and shoots hang down to the ground.

Question 12

What climate are Untrellised Vineyards generally used?

Answer 12

Usually in warm climates such as northern Rhone or Barossa Valley where the grapes need extra shade which they get from the vegetation hanging down

Question 13

Bush Vines

Answer 13

Usually in hot climates and they are Untrellised. They tend to be head trained and spur pruned
Also not suitable to machine harvesting

Question 14

Bush Vines in cool climates

Answer 14

Usually avoided in cool climates due to lack of aeration. Grapes in cool climates need as much sunlight as possible to ripen and bush vines act as shelter

Question 15

Trellised vineyards

Answer 15

Where a line of of wire runs through vines to allow canes and shoots to be tied up

Question 16

Three reasons for trellising?

Answer 16

1.Arrangement of young shoots can control sunlight. Cool climates - more direct sunlight - warm climates - you can arrange shoots to flop down and act as shade
2. Improves circulation in vineyard which prevents stagnant air increasing chances of fungal disease
3. Easier for mechanisation in vineyard for machine harvesting and spraying insecticides and fungicides

Question 17

VSP

Answer 17

Vertical Shoot Positioning
Trained vertically and tied in place onto trellis wire forming a single narrow canopy
Replacement cane or spur pruned

Question 18

VSP - Cool climates

Answer 18

Keeping the shoots apart keeps the canopy well aerated, open and allows the sunlight in

Question 19

VSP - Hot Climates

Answer 19

Easier for machine harvest and allowes the top of the shoots to hang over to create shade to prevent sunburn

Question 20

Density

Answer 20

Number of vines planted per hectare
Can be as many as 10,000 or as few as 1,000

Question 21

Hectare

Answer 21

A square with 100 metre sides
0.4 acres per hectare

Question 22

Limited water availability

Answer 22

Usually low density planting so that vine doesn’t have to compete with other vines. Usually a bush vine or a trellis with shoots flopping over for shade

Question 23

Low level of nutrients and sufficient water

Answer 23

Possible for vines to thrive in this environment
High density VSP trellised vines
This makes the vines compete for water and allows just sufficient amounts rather than too much

Question 24

What happens if the vine has too much water?

Answer 24

If the vine has too much water, growth can thrive and it can concentrate growth to leaves and away from grapes producing less flavour

Question 25

Why is it important to have the right amount of buds in a low nutrient high water vineyard

Answer 25

If there are too few buds the vine will have to much energy, too many buds they won’t have enough energy to ripen the crop

Question 26

High level of nutrients and sufficient rainfall

Answer 26

While highly fertile soils are not suitable for viticulture it is possible for vines to thrive in the enough

Question 27

what can be done to stem the growth of vines in areas with fertile soil and sufficient water?

Answer 27

Low density planting using vines with multiple cordons or cane. This will increase the amount of buds which will increase yields and keep grape quality high. Each bud will have sufficient nutrition and water to grow and ripen its crop

Question 28

Yields

Answer 28

This is the amount of grapes produced usually in tons or hectolitres

Question 29

Why is it important for growers to estimate yields?

Answer 29

Growers will need to estimate yields as they have contractually obligations as well as managing tank space

Question 30

How can a grape grower estimate yields?

Answer 30

He can estimate yields by knowing how many buds are left following winter pruning

Question 31

What affects a grape growers yield estimates and final figures?

Answer 31

Frost damage, poor fruit set pests and diseases

Question 32

Green harvest

Answer 32

If yields are going to be too high growers can remove immature grapes after veraison

Question 33

What are the risks of green harvest?

Answer 33

The vine can over compensate for the loss of grapes by producing bigger grapes which produce the same amount of juice but with less concentrated flavour

Question 34

Yields and quality

Answer 34

Traditionally there was a view that high yields produced lower quality grapes and low yields produce higher quality grapes but it is down the the individual vineyard