Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/789891
March 2017 WINES&VINES 43 GRAPEGROWING more or less water than others and setting ir- rigation requirements for each. With the instal- lation of secondary drip lines, we can fine-tune irrigation for individual rows and sections within rows. This greatly improves grape qual- ity and also helps reduce water usage. We can also use more drought-tolerant root- stocks, such as 110R and 1103P. We've success- fully planted these in vineyards that are really rocky or where we don't have a lot of water. Overall, we don't want to over-irrigate, be- cause we don't want overly vigorous vines— not only to conserve water, but also to improve fruit quality. For example, from berry set to a few weeks before véraison is a critical time to control vine vigor. This is the stage in berry development where cell division occurs and determines berry size down the road. This is also when undesired green flavors such as methoxypyrazines can be controlled. My own 4-acre vineyard is dry-farmed. I initially developed it as a dry-farmed project because water is pretty scarce on the West Rutherford Bench in south St. Helena. I hand- irrigated when the vines were planted to es- tablish them and now only water if there's a significant weather event, such as multiple days in a row of 100° F heat. We don't have any drip irrigation installed, so watering needs to be done by hand. It takes a long time, so I only water if absolutely necessary. Celia Welch, my winemaker for Barbour Vineyards, and I really like the character of the dry-farmed fruit from our site. My vine- yard is Clone 7 Cabernet, and we've tasted other Clone 7 wine lots from the same area, and it's just not the same. Q Are there aspects of viticulture where your thinking has changed over the past 10 or 15 years? For example, how have you changed your approach to sun expo- sure on the clusters? What about yields? Barbour: Like every business, we learn more every year, and there's been lots of new think- ing around some simple but impactful things like row direction. Ideally, we want our rows to run 36° to 38° east of north, and this helps us get an equal amount of sun on both sides of the vine. We also use things like shade cloth in vine- yards with poor row direction or on hillsides baking in the afternoon heat. When using shade cloth as a tool to protect the fruit zone and sometimes the canopy, we take several things into consideration to match the needs of the site, such as covering just the fruit zone, partial canopy, full canopy, one or both sides, etc. Sometimes it's also helpful to install cross arms in more closely spaced vineyards to add more shade. Misters are another great tool to help pro- tect the grapes from over-exposure and rapid ripening. Above-canopy misters seem to pro- vide the greatest benefit because they reduce the ambient air temperature for the canopy, keeping the leaves from shutting down and preventing berry dehydration. Misters don't take much water, and we can also use them in combination with the weather station. Once we start them up and see the ambient tempera- ture starting to drop, we can pulsate them to conserve even more water. We've made some simple changes in canopy management, too. We used to routinely pull the leaves on the morning side but now pull internal leaves and leave the external leaves for protection. You used to drive down the road and see all the leaves stripped from the fruit "We don't have any drip irrigation installed ...so I only water if absolutely necessary." — Jim Barbour