Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/62522
WineEast longer (and where the clusters would be that much closer to new growth next spring.) If you want to achieve an incremental increase in inoculum reduction, the unharvested clusters could be collected and removed from the vineyard rather than dropping in row middles. The choice is really a matter of vineyard scale and labor availability as well as personal convictions about vineyard sanitation. I asked two grape pathologists this question and essentially got a confirmation of the shred-in-place (row middle) recom- mendation. Wayne Wilcox at Cornell University added that it's also important to consider the thoroughness of removing the clusters from the trellis. His point was that if you're going to remove the clusters from the vines, be sure to do a good job of it, regardless of whether the clusters are dropped in the row middles or removed from the vineyard. Wilcox used the analogy of protective fungicide sprays: If you're going to apply fungi- cides (and most of us do), make sure that you're getting good coverage. If you remove affected clusters from the trellis, try to remove them all. This approach to sanitation will not eliminate the disease threats next season, but it can help with disease management. As Mizuho Nita, research/extension grape pathologist at Virginia Tech, men- tioned when we talked about this issue, your approach to sanitation this fall will not be worth much if you miss a critical spray or two next spring. The next question is: What about secondary clusters? Should they all be removed too? Chances are good that the secondary clusters would be removed during dormant pruning and probably don't have quite the rot issues that the primary crop might have suffered. Here, too, the follow-up question would be whether to remove prunings (and secondary clusters) from the vineyard or shred them in row middles. We currently shred the canes in our own vineyard, but I'm leaning toward removal and burning in the future—not for fruit rot issues but more related to concerns about vascular, wood-rotting pathogens. EasternWineLab_Mar09.qxp 1/22/09 9:47 AM Page 1 —Tony Wolf EASTERN WINE LABS Serving the Analytical needs of East Coast Wineries WWW.EASTERNWINELABS.COM Ph 609-859-4302 Cell 609-668-2854 chemist@easternwinelabs.com AOAC Member Grapegrowing Winemaker's Point of View As a former California vintner, making wine on the East Coast has broadened my understanding of winemaking. I appreciate the range of flavor profiles that the many different kinds of grapes grown in the east provide to the winemaker's palette, and those varieties have pushed me to develop different cellar treatments to bring out each wine's character and quality. The 2011 harvest season, how- ever, has offered a winemaking challenge to test the mettle of even the most seasoned East Coast winemakers. It's a challenge that would drive most West Coast winemakers crazy with worry. In the mid-Atlantic region, the storms of 2011 brought between 15 and 30 inches of rain in a two-week period early in September, which is quite early for harvest in this area. In many vineyards, strong winds during those storms essentially stripped the leaves off the vines. Because Vitis Wine Center is a custom crush/alternate proprietorship wine-production operation, we receive fruit from a variety of customers over much of the mid-Atlantic region, and we saw a range of effects from the extremely wet conditions. One variety, Vidal, was particularly hit hard. Normally, these grapes would not have arrived at the winery until two to three weeks later. Vidal from one vineyard where the leaves were not completely stripped came in at 17° Brix, while at another vineyard that lost most of its leaves, the grapes came in at 13° Brix. Both lots were chaptalized up 2° Brix and fermented. Interestingly, other than the difference in Brix, the harvest param- eters for both lots were reasonably normal. The pH was 3.3 to 3.4 (somewhat higher than normal for this variety at harvest), and the total acids were in the mid-7 to low-8 grams per liter range. Perhaps the most surprising fact was that the seeds were toward the darker brown stage for both lots. This indicates to me that these grapes had reached a turning point in their physiological development and were ready to be harvested, even though the normal level of sugar was not present. Wines fermented from these lots have typical varietal character, with the major difference being the concentration. Now the chal- lenge is to develop good-quality, drinkable wines. Grafted Grapevine Nursery, LLC Your Source for Quality Since 1957 Hybrid, Vinifera, Native and New Varieties. Grafted & Own rooted Vines. Custom grafting orders welcome. Stop by and see us at… NCWA Conference: Winston Salem, NC, Feb. 3rd & 4th Visit us. 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