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138 WINES&VINES January 2017 GRAPEGROWING PRACTICAL WINERY & VINEYARD 2008 recession. Beforehand, he was dead set on high-density planting and higher yield per acre farming. Babcock thought the economy of scale would be such that every- thing would pencil better with higher yields, and he had his sights set on doubling pro- duction to 40,000 cases. Then came the recession, which de- pressed sales while material costs increased. Babcock made the decision to halve, rather than double, the vineyard acreage and con- centrate on making truly great wine that he could sell mainly direct to consumer rather than through distribution. Current produc- tion is between 10,000 and 12,000 cases per year. "It was the same year we used a machine to pull leaves," Babcock recalls. "When you have VSP, you create a rigid wall of canopy with a very thin wall of leaves between the grape clusters and the outer environment. You can just shave off the leaves from the fruit zone automatically, which we did, going through the vineyard three times because the machine was not perfect and did not remove enough leaves on the first pass. "But we ran into powdery mildew, which just exploded. We made three or four me- chanical passes through the vineyard and then still had to bring in a human crew be- cause the powdery mildew was like a wild- fire. This started my thinking toward a whole new system." The final push toward change came while working on a double-high tractor that was automatically lifting up and clipping the vine's shoots into a VSP system. When Babcock real- ized that it was costing 25 cents each for thousands of little plastic clips, he began to think that there must be a less stressful, more cost effective way to farm. Babcock used more than 20 years of experi- ence in the vineyard and his travels, including visiting the Rias Baixas in Spain, to see how Albariño is grown and visualize a new system. He spent hours with his vineyard manager just looking at individual vines and talking about what they needed in terms of sunlight, nutri- ents and support. He evaluated how grapes would grow in the wild, paying attention to their natural tendencies and the effects of gravity and wind. Babcock wanted to raise the fruit zone and let the vines grow naturally with gravity, but he realized, "You can't make the mistake of putting a cordon on top—you do not want a trunk going horizontally, because then it is very rigid and everything has a tendency to snarl up. You get congestion, and you cannot un- tangle it early enough." Babcock's field workers appreciate the improved ergonomics of the raised fruit zone, and it has reduced workers' compensa- tion claims. Another benefit has been some frost protection. "On cold nights in the spring," Babcock remarks, "three out of the past five years we saw frost and how the little volunteer shoots down on the trunks got burned, whereas young shoots up in the raised platform were all OK, just by virtue of being 3 feet higher above ground." There is less concern with frost when the cover crop is fully grown. With VSP, a common strategy is to mow to try to get the cold air to drain out of the field, but with PCS's fruit zone above the sinking cold air, Babcock does not mow nearly as often. Potential downsides to PCS However, converting non-PCS vines to PCS can be problematic. Babcock advises, "If you are going to do my kind of farming, get the right stake and grow the vine up to that height from the beginning." Otherwise, to convert vines, one must turn the canes upward to extend the trunks, creating a kink in what should be verti- cally straight. There are also issues with row orientation, vine spacing and tractor-row width. Most vineyards in the Sta. Rita Hills are oriented north-south to provide some protec- BÖRGER ROTARY LOBE PUMPS PROVEN IN THE WINE INDUSTRY + Low Shear & Gentle Handling + Dry Running Capability + Flow rates up to 7,500 gpm + Ease of Maintenance (MIP) + Compact, Space Saving Design + Reversible Operation + Whole Grapes, Must, Lees, Pomace, Juice, etc. + Crush Pads, Pump Overs, Transfers + Stationary or Mobile Construction To learn more, contact america@boerger.com, visit w w w.boerger.com or call 612.435.7300 Boerger Representative: P 510.784.0110 F 510.784.1004 W rfmacdonald.com E info@rfmacdonald.com R.F. MacDonald Co. Example Wine Carts