Making Grape Wine
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US $3.99
It takes Quality Grapes to Make Quality Wines
Hi fellow viticulturists. This article is basic vineyard procedures that you probably already are familiar with, but sometimes reminders get us on the right track. Let’s start with an understanding that quality wine starts in the vineyard. To make quality wine you MUST start with quality fruit. Good wine cannot be made from bad grapes. So with that understanding let’s discuss what you need to do in your vineyard to help insure quality fruit.
Growing grapes is agriculture… you know, farming and as such there are some established and proven procedures you need to follow. Let’s start in the beginning of the calendar year. Sometime while the vines are dormant (January through March) vines must be pruned. Not pruning properly will lead to unwanted sprawl and a mess when growth resumes, and consequently will have a negative effect on fruit quality.
Just after (or just before) you finish pruning, you need to tie your vines securely to their respective posts. I am assuming you are using a Head Trained or Vertical Cordon Trained system. Use the green tie tape material, but don’t use the ½ inch tape. Use the 1 inch tape as it is much stronger and will serve much better. Start at the bottom and make a tie every 8 to 12 inches, depending on need. When you get to the top tie, you will want to make 3 or 4 loops around the stake and the vine so it will hold securely when it experiences the weight of grapes in a few months.
OK… now you can take a short break. Drink a little wine! There is nothing you need to do until growth begins, except verify your water system is in good repair and is functioning properly. It is very important that your vineyard watering system is independent from all other landscape watering. You will not water your vineyard like you water other landscaping, and vice versa. I will write an article dedicated to vineyard irrigation in the near future.
Be on the alert for the first sign of green growth. That will signal the start of a new growing season. When the growth starts is when you start back to work. Start walking and inspecting the vineyard every couple of days. You will be looking for anything that does not look right, like insect infestation. You are also watching for bud break. Some call it bud burst, but it is the same thing. When you observe bud break, RECORD THE DATE, and note the high daily temperature. Assuming it is less than 90 degrees it is time to start your regular sulfur spray routine. This is a critical process and not sulfur spraying is the single largest problem affecting the quality of your fruit. If you elect to not sulfur spray on a consistent basis you can count on losing some of your crop to powdery mildew. You may get lucky one year and lose little or none, but eventually it WILL get you. You will be spraying every 7 to 10 days from bud break to harvest EXCEPT when the daily high temperature reaches 90 degrees or above and stays at that level. Powdery Mildew cannot take hold and start above 90 degrees, so you can stop spraying. However, if you have not been spraying the higher temperatures will not undue damage already done by Powdery Mildew. You should keep a record of each date you spray.
Continue to walk and inspect your vineyard every couple of days. Your focus now is on catching any problems, like infestation by undesirable bugs and/or worms. These things can do damage very fast, so you need to catch them early. Also be alert to sucker shoots and remove them promptly.
At the fist sign of veraison (the berries begin to change from green to red) you will want to drop excess fruit. Always keep the best looking clusters and the ones closest to the stalk of your vine. The general rule is you will keep 2 clusters per cane, but you have some latitude here. Be cautioned that over-cropping (keeping too much fruit) can lead to an inferior quality in your harvest fruit, so use some common sense here.
When veraison is 2 to 4 weeks along it will be time to do some shoot and leaf thinning. I have done this by hand and mechanically with an electric hedger. In my opinion the hedger is the way to go. One caution if you use a powered hedger, it is very easy to over trim. You will want to try and leave 8 to 10 leaves per cluster, and try to keep one or two leaves between the sun and your grapes.
Remember that you will want to stop all vineyard watering 6 to 8 weeks prior to harvest. If you fail to do this you will find your brix will have a problem moving up. In the Vineyard Development we can normally anticipate harvest (based upon the brix, or course) to be sometime in the first 3 weeks of September. But you cannot count on that. It could be earlier or later, so keep an eye on that brix.
Generally, you cannot make a Silk Purse out of a Sow’s Ear, and generally you cannot make good wine from bad grapes. With just a little attention you will have good grapes AND good wine!
About the Author
Wayne C. Weeks --
Wayne is a published author, writer, blogger and Internet Marketer who spent more than 30 years in the mortgage industry. Wayne is also a Christian, Businessman, Award Winning Winemaker, Lay Minister, Private Pilot, Husband and stuff like that...
Wayne also operates an Article Submission Service. Get Information at: http://www.elitearticlesubmission.com/
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