I love this time of year in the vines. There’s a real sense that everything is possible. The young growth is healthy and vibrant. The embryonic bunches of grapes are visible, waiting to be fertilised. The vines know how to grow and produce fruit with no intervention from mankind but to achieve the quality of grapes we’re looking for there is a lot for us to do. We’re learning all the time and will never stop.
The major task at the moment is to make sure that each vine is managed to produce the “correct” number of bunches and that we have good shoot positioning. This process starts with winter pruning. This year we pruned long so that we could create space which allows us to position each shoot so that air can circulate and contact between bunches is limited. For example we pruned so that a cane had 8 to 9 buds. By removing 3 or 4 of these buds/shoots we get 5 well-spaced shoots per cane.
The desired number of bunches per vine differs from parcel to parcel and is determined by a number of factors including the grape variety, the age of vines and the type of wine we want to make. For example, in our young Braucol parcel we are restricting the number of bunches to 5. This should allow a good proportion of the energy to go into the trunk and roots so laying down carbohydrates which will give endurance for future years rather than spending the energy on fruit production.
For all our black variety vines the key is to produce healthy ripe grapes which means, amongst other things, carefully controlling both the leaf canopy and the yield. Mature Braucol vines can produce 100HL/H or more but to achieve good levels of phenolic and sugar ripeness we’re aiming for no more than 40HL/H.
Shoot thinning isn’t mindless vineyard work as some tasks are. It builds on pruning to set the course for the rest of the growing season. The better it is done the higher the quality of the final fruit and – the better the fruit the better the wine!!
Great tasting in London Town last night! Many thanks, Jack and Margaret, for a top evening!
Chris