Well, harvest is done, the grapes have been pressed and the juice recently inoculated with yeast! The winemakers job has begun, but the viticulturists job continues!
I got out into the vineyard today to flush the irrigation system to ensure that the lines would be free of debris that could potentially clog the emitters. Once this is done, the vines got a nice six hour drink, at 1.2 litres per hour. This should be enough to wet the soil under the emitters to a good depth, and get water to the roots. The vines will now have access to plenty of water that should allow them to photosynthesise and store nutrients needed for next season's growth. Many leaves have yellowed by this point, but there are still lots of green leaves that can do useful work.
This is the first irrigation of the season, so in some ways, it is pretty unusual to have this happening after harvest!!
As well, I mowed the vineyard, which keeps walking down the rows pleasant, especially if you're doing it early in the morning or after a bit of rain.
If we're lucky, there will be another month and a half of useful photosynthesis going on. As temperatures fall in the late part of the season, the vines take this as a signal to get ready for winter, drop their leaves, and harden off the shoots. They become a lot less green and the shoots develop a brown periderm, which protects them from low temperatures and otherwise harsh conditions. Once the leaves have fallen off, we will call the shoots canes instead!
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Monday, March 15, 2010
Harvest already?
Harvest is upon us!!
Yes, this is a bit early, but our vineyard was put in from the start to be the basis of sparkling wine (the most recognisable form of which is made in the Champagne region of France) production. The making of sparkling wine is more complex than normal still wine, and requires the grapes to be picked earlier than usual.
So while grapes for table wine might be picked at 25 degrees Brix (specialised term to represent the percentage sugar in them), grapes for sparkling wine might be picked at 18 degrees Brix.
As it turns out, our grapes were actually above that target, but that's okay, as the flavours were really nice for sparkling wine!
An advantage of growing grapes for sparkling wine is that since you harvest them earlier, there is less time for the grapes to be eaten by the birds, less chance that disease will get in there, and thus more time to relax!!
However, not all is complete. The nets need to be taken up, the vineyard mowed, and some water applied through the irrigation system. The latter, because we haven't actually needed to irrigate so far this year, will need to be flushed to make sure there isn't any gunk in there that could block the emitters.
Why irrigate? Well, it has been a while since we had any significant rain. By significant, I mean at least 25mm. So though we've had a few rain events in the past three months, they've all been less than that, so the soil is still pretty dry. I didn't want to apply water right before we harvested as that would have pumped up the berries with more water, which would have diluted the sugars, acids and flavours.
So now that the grapes are off, I can give the vines some water so that they have plenty to be able to photosynthesise lots, and therefore store some energy for next season.
As a side note, we did have about 10mm of rain right before harvest, which did have a significant effect on the berries. Based on some research I was part of in Oregon, this probably occurred by the water being absorbed directly into the berries, or into the leaves and stems, and then into the berries. Whatever happened, the morning right before we harvested the berries were plump and splitting as we were taking some off to sample. By the end of the afternoon (and a hot day!), the berries were no longer turgid.
As well, quite a few of the berries were deflating/shrivelling, caused by a crack in the berry skin. My theory on this is that the swelling of the berries caused some micro-fissures in the skin, which then ruined the integrity of the berry, causing the berries to shrivel as the day wore on and water was lost from them.
This made us very happy that we had decided to harvest, as the berries would not have been in very good shape later in the week!! It was definitely the right time to take them off!!
Yes, this is a bit early, but our vineyard was put in from the start to be the basis of sparkling wine (the most recognisable form of which is made in the Champagne region of France) production. The making of sparkling wine is more complex than normal still wine, and requires the grapes to be picked earlier than usual.
So while grapes for table wine might be picked at 25 degrees Brix (specialised term to represent the percentage sugar in them), grapes for sparkling wine might be picked at 18 degrees Brix.
As it turns out, our grapes were actually above that target, but that's okay, as the flavours were really nice for sparkling wine!
An advantage of growing grapes for sparkling wine is that since you harvest them earlier, there is less time for the grapes to be eaten by the birds, less chance that disease will get in there, and thus more time to relax!!
However, not all is complete. The nets need to be taken up, the vineyard mowed, and some water applied through the irrigation system. The latter, because we haven't actually needed to irrigate so far this year, will need to be flushed to make sure there isn't any gunk in there that could block the emitters.
Why irrigate? Well, it has been a while since we had any significant rain. By significant, I mean at least 25mm. So though we've had a few rain events in the past three months, they've all been less than that, so the soil is still pretty dry. I didn't want to apply water right before we harvested as that would have pumped up the berries with more water, which would have diluted the sugars, acids and flavours.
So now that the grapes are off, I can give the vines some water so that they have plenty to be able to photosynthesise lots, and therefore store some energy for next season.
As a side note, we did have about 10mm of rain right before harvest, which did have a significant effect on the berries. Based on some research I was part of in Oregon, this probably occurred by the water being absorbed directly into the berries, or into the leaves and stems, and then into the berries. Whatever happened, the morning right before we harvested the berries were plump and splitting as we were taking some off to sample. By the end of the afternoon (and a hot day!), the berries were no longer turgid.
As well, quite a few of the berries were deflating/shrivelling, caused by a crack in the berry skin. My theory on this is that the swelling of the berries caused some micro-fissures in the skin, which then ruined the integrity of the berry, causing the berries to shrivel as the day wore on and water was lost from them.
This made us very happy that we had decided to harvest, as the berries would not have been in very good shape later in the week!! It was definitely the right time to take them off!!
Friday, March 5, 2010
On and on about netting!
Ah, the netting saga continues!!
I spent the day putting netting on a rootstock trial, as we use the fruit for teaching, and also winemaking. The trial has been very interesting, as the rootstocks were chosen to represent a wide range of rootstock grapevine species, and the control is Chardonnay (Mendoza clone) grafted onto itself, as the graft union probably has an effect on the growth of the vine as well. Unfortunately, we don't have an ungrafted control in the block, as there wasn't room to include it as an eighth treatment (six different rootstocks and the control grafted Chardonnay).
Still, there are intriguing results, with the scion (Chardonnay) trunk circumference to rootstock trunk circumference ratios being quite different among the treatments. Curiously, the Chardonnay grafted onto itself is not resulting in a 1:1 ratio, but is actually the smallest - the scion trunk circumference is the much less than the rootstock's trunk circumference, even though they are the same plant material!
In any case, the netting, which is single over-the-row type netting that I've already put photos up of, is over the vines, and the three rows mostly clipped up. The worst of the bird damage was at the end of the rows that are closest to the Poplar tree windbreak. This is one of the reasons that viticulturists don't like having trees near the vineyard - they provide roosting areas and cover for birds!
I spent the day putting netting on a rootstock trial, as we use the fruit for teaching, and also winemaking. The trial has been very interesting, as the rootstocks were chosen to represent a wide range of rootstock grapevine species, and the control is Chardonnay (Mendoza clone) grafted onto itself, as the graft union probably has an effect on the growth of the vine as well. Unfortunately, we don't have an ungrafted control in the block, as there wasn't room to include it as an eighth treatment (six different rootstocks and the control grafted Chardonnay).
Still, there are intriguing results, with the scion (Chardonnay) trunk circumference to rootstock trunk circumference ratios being quite different among the treatments. Curiously, the Chardonnay grafted onto itself is not resulting in a 1:1 ratio, but is actually the smallest - the scion trunk circumference is the much less than the rootstock's trunk circumference, even though they are the same plant material!
In any case, the netting, which is single over-the-row type netting that I've already put photos up of, is over the vines, and the three rows mostly clipped up. The worst of the bird damage was at the end of the rows that are closest to the Poplar tree windbreak. This is one of the reasons that viticulturists don't like having trees near the vineyard - they provide roosting areas and cover for birds!
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