Winegrowing @ Vilafonté

November 22, 2011@ Vilafonté

Phil Freese & Edward Pietersen

Today: “Today: “Beginning With The End Beginning With The End In MindIn Mind””

• Defining ‘target’ wine characteristics and attributes– “Absolute” vs. “Relative”

• Know the site: Soils, Climate, Plant materials• Know the ‘tools’ available to drive the outcome for

the wines• Design vineyard and wine growing to meet the

wine objectives using the best ‘tools’• Seasonal wine growing = “The Game Plan”

– Management is sensitive to • “The Game Plan” & overall wine objectives above• The season The “Plan” becomes Reality of season

Training is VSP Vine spacing (1.2 x 1.6 m) = (4.0 x 5.25 feet) 5,200 vines/ha = 2,112 vines/acre

Vilafonté Vineyard:Vilafonté Vineyard:

Variety Ha Clone(s) Rootstock Plant - Year

CF 0.68 623 & 214 101-14 1999

CS 6.08 163, 37, 341 101-14 1998 & 1999

ME 4.86 343 & 348 101-14 1998, 1999, 2007

MA 2.83 46, 71, 1 101-14 & R99 1998, 2006

14.45

Technology @ Vilafonté: “Appropriate Technology @ Vilafonté: “Appropriate for the time”for the time”

500 Million years ago

Current way to assess soil variability – pre-plant

Key Wine Growing Issues for VilafonteKey Wine Growing Issues for Vilafonte

Soils“Old” soils – highly weathered

Sub-surface drainage installed prior to plantingrow orientation to facilitate drainage

“Vilafontes” is one of the soil types Vilafonté

Managing for wine characters and Managing for wine characters and style:style:Training and pruning to set shoot number and

position – fruit display

Water management – time & amount-stress – Build ‘sufficient’ canopy

Leaf Water Potential (LWP) pressure bombDrainage

Crop control & Managing for uniformity of fruit ripening

Low yields per vine and good yields per hectare 7 tons/Ha = 1.4 Kg/vine (3.1 pounds per vine) Intensity of character Severe thinning fruit to ‘capacity’ of the shoots Severe veraison thinning – achieve uniformly ripe fruit

Key Wine Growing Issues for VilafonteKey Wine Growing Issues for Vilafonte

Climate“Mediterranean”

Winter rainfall area - about 25 - 30 inches (April – September)

Low frost potential in the spring“Mild” summers

Warm days and nightsHigher relative humidity vs. California – less vine stress

extremesSomewhat more regular ripening weather

(more shallow diurnal temperature changes) Long post-harvest time for vine-ripeness

Regular phenology Approximately 105 – 110 days, bloom to harvest

G. Jones (2006)

Grape Vine Phenology Dates And Data: Grape Vine Phenology Dates And Data: Some Practical Uses Within The Growing season:Some Practical Uses Within The Growing season:• Phenology is your ‘timeline’ for the growing season

– Budburst to flowering is a ‘squishy’ number (heat limiting in spring)

– Other stages are very reproducible (heat saturated – in most “New World” areas)

• Timing between events is very regular season-to-seasonfor a given site, variety and vineyard block

• Timing within an event is a measure of variability– Number of elapsed days from 5% to 95%

• Net – you can project timing of vine events from your phenology data:– Flowering dates and fungicide sprays– Cutoff date for last sulfur application to avoid residue on fruit– Water management – choose a stress level (severity) and (time)

to hit this level– When you need to do veraison thinning– Harvest timing– French plan their summer vacations!

Vineyard Operations:Vineyard Operations: The Vineyard Team The Vineyard Team

Vineyard Operations:Vineyard Operations:

Pruning

Vineyard Operations:Vineyard Operations:

PruningSuckeringCanopy

Side shootsWire shifting & Shoot positioning

Dealing With The Natural Dealing With The Natural Variability Of VineyardsVariability Of Vineyards

• Weak shoots

• Veraison thinning

• Selective harvest of sub-areas to achieve uniform lots

• Berry sorting at the winery after de-stemming

Vineyard Operations:Vineyard Operations:

PruningSuckeringCanopy

Side shootsWire lifting & Shoot positioning

Water management

Vineyard Operations:Vineyard Operations:

PruningSuckeringCanopy

Side shootsWire lifting & Shoot positioning

Water managementVeraison thinning

Vineyard Operations:Vineyard Operations:

PruningSuckeringCanopy

Side shootsWire lifting & Shoot positioning

Water managementVeraison thinningHarvest

The Vine: Uneven Fruit RipeningThe Vine: Uneven Fruit Ripening• Non-uniform ripening of fruit is probably a large positive

benefit for better evolutionary competition

– More chances to have animals feed on some of the berries as they come ripe:

• Better chance of ripening in the migration time of birds

– Better chance of surviving different climate conditions

• Non-uniform ripening is not positive for winemaking

objectives!

– Lack of ‘focus’ of aroma and flavor – mixed berry characters

• Variations within:

– Vineyard – area to area

– Vine – bunch to bunch

– Cluster – berry to berry

Normalized Difference Vegetation Index Normalized Difference Vegetation Index = NDVI = NDVI (Spatial Variation of Vegetative Index)(Spatial Variation of Vegetative Index)