Making Good Wine: The Vineyard Part Two

The important part was the choice of grape. Chambourcin was a hybrid which we knew from the Cassegrain experiments at Port Macquarie could cope with humidity and still produce good red wine. The purchase was on rootstock although any that failed to thrive were replaced with non-rootstock and did well though never as well as rootstock vines. It's just that vigorous rootstock that handles the harsh conditions better. Without the choice of a hybrid it would have been very difficult to maintain a healthy vine without a lot of work protecting against mildew. This was a choice based around keeping the work load to a minimum and avoiding dangerous chemicals.

Feeding grape vines is a similarly tricky operation. Ideally the vines should drop there roots 3 to 4 metres into the ground pulling on the base minerals and transforming them to the unique flavours found in great wines. Seeing as how at HHF the roots go down such a short way (600 mm) before heading off horizontally it becomes a little more interesting. Many viticulturists have limited the amount of feeding so as not to create too much vigour and unbalance the grape flavour. The use of small amounts of cow, sheep or horse manure between the rows is common.

At HHF our soils are acidic and an occasional application of Lime or Dolomite is conducted after harvest every couple of years. Last year some Power Fish a concentrated fish emulsion was applied in a very dilute form via the irrigation system. Two applications were performed. The first as bud burst commenced and the second during flowering. This small intervention seems to have produced an excellent result without over stimulating the vines. The fish emulsion provided some trace elements in minute forms. There is a belief that over stimulating vines with nitrogen will only attract pests to lush growth. Everything moderation is a good guide whether it be lime, trace elements or compost.

Our chickens roam freely in the vineyard and harvest insects as well as leave behind droppings which feed the soil. This seems sufficient to encourage the vines to battle onwards.

Pruning is tailored to variety, conditions, tradition and vine vigour. In the case of HHF the goal is to minimise potential bunches to allow the struggling vines to produce ripe bunches by harvest time. Spur pruning is our choice although the occasional cane pruning occurs on some vines. At flowering time Chambourcin puts out three flower bunches per spur this would result in far too many bunches for the canopy and trunk to ripen. During flowering a regular morning task is to stroll through the vines pinching out all the flowers clusters  except the closet to the vine. This reduces the crop by two thirds. Since undertaking this procedure our crops have reached maturity with good sugar levels and excellent skin pigmentation. It is possible to trim green bunches later but it seems pointless to allow a vine to make such a huge commitment of energy when it can be done at a much earlier stage. It does mean our yields have reduced appropriately but quality is beats quantity anytime.

Many vineyards spend  time clear cultivating between rows to remove grass competition. This practice is waning and there is a greater movement towards grassed rows, green manure crops that are tilled under or better still legumes which are mown. Bare dirt looks fine until it rains and farm equipment gouges tracks between the rows. This happens so often during harvest leaving a terrible mess of compacted soil. There has been a bit of a trend to use horse drawn equipment in a few vineyards to reduce soil compression but it would be a rarity.

Birds are a pain in the butt once veraison (colour change in the grapes) has commenced. The use of gas cannons is effective in larger vineyards, Hawks are useful and there are sound recordings of predator birds which can be played on loudspeakers. As much as it is hated, netting is the choice at HHF based on cost. It does cause some vine damage. it reduces sunlight and doesn't help during humid days but it works. As soon as bird activity is noted the nets are spread out. This can sometimes be quite late depending on the bird activity in that year. White netting allows the most UV light. Biodynamic peppers have been experimented with and seem to have some success but rain dissipates the effect quickly.

Next: Making Good Wine: The Harvest

Making Good Wine: The Vineyard Part One

There are lots and lots of books on choosing a site, preparing the ground, trellis choices and spacing's etc. These comments relate to the vineyard at HHF and how it evolved and how over more than 15 years it came to produce excellent fruit using standard techniques, ideas gleaned from various sources and experiments and observation. Every vineyard site is unique and although there are standardised principles they will vary, sometimes just that little bit or even a lot. It is all to do with the influences of not only soils and climate but also the influences of the surrounding area and structures be they trees, hills, mountains and water features. Experimentation will translate into dividends in quality.

Working full time and pursuing a bucket load of interests simultaneously meant the vineyard didn't always receive top priority every year but it did get pruned and watered and gradually over time shortcomings were eliminated. Continuing pruning and training is the critical task. If not pruned each year it takes a long time to retrain.

When the site was chosen it was an outcome based on a couple of factors. The site was reasonably close to the house meaning it would likely get some attention. A factor that is always important for the small winemaker. The area was an end of the orchard that wasn't needed as all the  fruit trees deemed important at the time were selected and allocated a spot. Being close to the house has really paid dividends allowing a regular inspection with ease.

A local contractor had been employed to deep rip along the contour. 'Deep' really wasn't that deep as the bedrock of shale like rock was only about 600 mm below the surface. The ripping pulled up a lot of rocks which were gradually collected and used as fill elsewhere on the property. In this part of the orchard the contour ran East to West providing a perfectly North facing Vineyard. Who could ask for more. In hindsight ripping both along the contour and counter contour would have been beneficial.

There was no guarantee that vines would survive in this harsh shallow soil and humid climate especially since there was a goal of not spraying chemicals. Consequently little money was invested in trellising. Because it was just experimental only Star pickets and pig mesh were used as they were surplus stock in the hayshed. Very primitive and rough reaching 1000 mm in height at best and sometimes lower. The guide books talked about short trunk height contributing to better grape maturity. By keeping the distances between roots and bunches short there was less travelling for nutrients. This is fine except at picking time when the slightly hunched back begins to hurt. This would be discovered during the first vintage. Vines were spaced at 900mm (3 ft)  intervals. Apparently crowding is good. It stresses the vines forcing a better quality fruit.

After almost a decade of trialling, the trellis system was replaced and the vines retrained to a greater height with fruit at the 1200 level.. This alleviated the bad back problem (sometimes quality must be sacrificed for health). But more importantly the extra height and additional wires to hold the foliage above allowed greater air flow during humid times as well as exposing the fruit to more sunlight an important criteria for better grape quality.

Irrigation was installed but the original pipe size was a minimal 12 mm with drippers. The problem here is not enough pipe diameter to get solid pressure to all drippers resulting in a tedious program of adjustment to all 150 outlets each time the irrigation was used. Eventually this was replaced with 25 mm pipe and two entry points for the water. Now it is a simple 10 minute task to eye ball all 150 with little or no adjustment required. Many vineyards avoid watering which is a great idea if you have deep soil and good weather conditions early in the life of a vine to allow it to establish.

Watering is a necessary evil on this farm. The soil is shallow and the ground dries out quickly. If not watered the vines die. While they were establishing lots of water was applied but gradually the tap was restricted forcing roots deeper and wider. Now watering is strictly controlled especially approaching harvest so as not to dilute the sugars. This is a tricky operation. Too much water and the berries swell with water not sugar and the ratios of everything in the grape distort especially the flavours in the skins. Not enough water and the vine shuts down and fruit stops maturing.

Wood chip mulch around each vine was applied in one of the early years but the chickens soon disposed of them spreading the lot evenly over the entire vineyard.

So there you have it. Planning and preparation are critical but don't guarantee a perfect result. Individual site conditions influence everything involved and gradual modification and adaption is usually necessary.

Next: Making Good Wine: The Vineyard Part Two

This will look at on going vineyard management.

Vineyard

A couple of years ago the old vineyard trellising was feeling its age. Because of the shallow soil metal end strainers were the only viable solution unfortunately the cost was going to be between $500 and $1000 to buy enough galvanised steel pipe to complete the project. The idea was shelved until we stumbled across a large quantity of short off cuts at the local garbage dump shop. At the cost of $1 each we took the lot. By the time the entire vineyard was re-trellised a great deal of skill was acquired welding pipe together to achieve a suitable length. In the end not only was the trellising completed but there were enough off-cuts to complete other fencing as well as a few odd jobs and all that for $60.

The rag tag vineyard which originally had patchy trellis put in as a temporary measure to see if grapes would survive now has a pleasant symmetry about it. The wire stays on the slanted strainers were use to avoid having to put in diagonal pipe stays. The strainers are filled with cement as they would otherwise bend as the wires were tensioned. Each strainer is concreted to bedrock and each wire stay is attached to a piece of pipe also concreted to bedrock. To achieve the same angle we built a portable wooden jig to support the strainer until the concrete had set, Small nuts are welded to the strainer to stop the wires from slipping.

Each of the uprights in the row has a netting spreader installed to keep the netting away from the fruit as the birds sit on the net and try to reach the fruit.

Once the trellising was completed a new drip irrigation system was installed to increase the water capacity. Most recently the weed mat was removed and guards installed around each vine. The weed mat had helped reduce the weed competition while the vines gained some maturity but was now too overgrown.

The end result has been positive for the fruit. Yields have increased and there is less disease as a result of the additional height and the better netting.