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Soluble solids may have been underestimated as a function of raisined fruit, which may have inhibited full sugar extraction from whole clusters in a small-scale (40-liter) bladder press. Never- theless, in this experiment, as in many oth- ers, there seems to be little disputing that cluster thinning advances ripening. In some regions outside New York such as Ontario, Canada, growers are paid for bulk Riesling grapes based on a mandatory price schedule of soluble solids, and if such a regulated price structure were used in New York for this study, it would have resulted in a $244, $273 and $286 per tonne price premium in each respective year (Gedeon 2012), not enough to offset the reduced grower net return after cluster thinning. In 2010 yield was equivalent among all treatments, ranging from 4.7 to 5.8 t/ha, which may have been an indicator of vine carbohydrate reserves declining following two previous years of relatively high crop level between 7.3 and 8.4 t/ha. Economic willingness to pay analysis and wine sensory panel Commercial growers are motivated to recoup costs incurred from cluster thinning and maintain consistent net returns; the only way to do this is to charge above- market prices for grapes if buyers are willing to pay a premium. Without such a financial incentive, growers would likely not employ cluster thinning as a viticultural practice. In 2008 grower net returns were positive at the control crop level, but fruit from those vines only reached 17.1° Brix, and the low crop level (19.6° Brix) would have required a 56% price increase to re- coup costs of cluster thinning. In 2009 the control fruit did not reach 18° Brix, and the grower experienced reduced net returns at the low crop level compared to the control, so the sustainable level of crop would need to balance considerations of ripeness and financial returns. In 2010 grower net re- turns were positive at all crop levels, and all fruit reached at least 19° Brix at harvest, so the most sustainable crop level was the one that maximized yields. Grower net returns were the lowest at the low crop level and required 56%, 70% and 27% grape price increases to maintain constant net return compared to the control each respective year, not including any possible increased risks associated with late harvest, such as grapevine pest and disease management. It is unlikely that such large price increases would be tolerated by the market or that improved grape quality would offset the financial costs of implementing cluster thinning. If the profit-motivated grower had kept the grapes for winemaking instead of selling them at inflated market prices, there would need to be assurances of higher willingness to pay for the late-harvest wines to justify the financial losses associated with cluster thinning. Nonetheless, a panel of New York City wine professionals reported no difference in willingness to pay or likability for any crop levels in 2009 and 2010, and the only perceived differences among wines either year were the 2009 low-crop wines, which exhibited reduced structure, and 2009 medium-crop wines, which exhibited reduced fruitiness. Low- and medium-cropped vines led to substantially smaller grower financial net returns. Under these experimentally imposed yield and cost conditions, in order for the grapegrower to break even finan- cially there would need to be an impetus to charge more for each bottle of wine to recoup the costs of cluster thinning. Such a price increase could only be warranted by higher willingness to pay for wines made from lower cropped vines. The consumer preference elicitation technique applied here has been reported previously as a reliable tool for assessing willingness to pay for wine (Yang et al. 2009). Willingness to pay was relatively low for all wines in this study, likely due to the fact that the wines did not undergo typical commercial finishing techniques such as enzyme addi- tions, acid and sugar adjustments or filtering. The results This three-year study examined the effects of cluster thinning on various fruit, wine, sensory and economic parameters of a commercial Riesling vineyard in the Finger Grapegrowing