Proper Vine Stress

Wow. December already. If I were a vine it would be off into dormancy. Probably the most important season of all. Lets pretend for a moment that I were a vine. How would my vintage of this past year rate? At first glance I would have to say it was a tough year. It was a year that did not see much rain and the vine was very stressed. A small crop that was harvested at just the right time with perfectly ripe grapes. In my mind a stellar year. Why? Because of stress. I believe that proper stress to the vine and small crop loads are the keys to our ripening dilemma.

As I have been studying wine and viticulture these past few years it has been much more than an obsession. It has been a journey of discovery about myself and of those around me. I have often equated the vine with people and personified it as myself. I believe there are many lessons to be learned from studying the vine and it is a journey I would suggest everyone embark upon. Many of my beliefs and understanding about wine come from years of studying and trying understand people. 

The first realisation hit me when I was standing in the vineyard of Clos Pepe in the Sta. Rita Hills with Wes Hagen two years ago on a foggy morning too early for my brain to function. This blog was borne of a book idea and Wes's interview was the first of several during the Santa Barbara harvest of 2007. If you have never met Wes you are missing out on a very passionate knowledgeable conversation about grapes and wine. He is a walking encyclopedia of information and is probably the best farmer in the valley. We were picking pinot noir grapes that looked like raisins for one of his clients and everything made sense at that moment. Talking about the role of organic farming, abolishing the evils in the wine industry, styles that have emerged and questioning why anyone would leave Clos Pepe fruit on the vine until the grapes turn into raisins I understood why I became obsessed with wine. Wine is agriculture. It is about the land. It is about the vine. It is about the weather and the dance between those three and the farmer. That is what every "winemaker" should be...a farmer.

Standing with Wes in the vineyard I felt bad for the vine. I knew who would get these grapes and I knew what he would do with them. The vine looked sad holding its fruit that long. It is not natural and I do not believe it is healthy for the vine. I actually think that the syrah syndrome everyone is worried about is an effect of picking too late. The vines are shutting down because they are stressed at the wrong time in their life cycle. Syrah and Pinot have become the greatest victims of this abuse in the States. Syrah grapes are not meant to hang on the vine until they reach 26 brix and beyond. The vine has been working for months and it is ready to drop its fruit around 24 if not before. Especially if you are farming over 3 tons an acre. That is a lot of weight on the vine. It has been working hard all season and it is ready for a break and a 4 month nap.

Think about it in terms of a sports team. I grew up playing soccer and we had 30 game seasons. The good coaches would push us hard early. This push and drive would lessen gradually until the season ended and by the end of the season we were exactly where we needed to be as players and as a team. The bad coaches would be easy on us early in the season and then as we lost focus would come down on us hard toward the end of the season. This would prove only to break our morale as we were already down on ourselves. Needless to say that the first approach was ALWAYS more successful.

I see the same principles at work in the vine. All effort in the vineyard should be to get the vine ready to harvest when the fruit is in perfect balance of acid and sugar levels. That should be the focus right now going into next season. No one seems to care about this. Most "winemakers" would be lost in the vineyard. They have no concept of farming nor do they care about learning. They just take the grapes that are given to them and do the best or worst they can with them. We must get back to the vineyard. That is were all the experimentation should take place. Work on farming techniques. Get to know the vines. Find out what it takes to harvest concentrated complex berries at proper sugar levels. Stress the vine early in the season and make the roots dig deep for nutrients in the soil. Experiment with your water management regimes and give as little as possible. Drop fruit more often and research different pruning techniques and methods.  I think you will find that these are some of the keys to achieving proper phenolic ripeness at lower sugar levels. Experiment with leaf pulling to slow down photosynthesis. There has to be a solution to the high alcohol problem without using technology.

Now here I must admit my lack of experience in the vineyard. At this point all of these ideas about the vineyard are theory. A theory I believe to be absolute truth. Vine stress is the key to achieving proper phenolic ripeness but what that looks like will be different from vineyard to vineyard. The key is that we try. If I had access to a vineyard I would be doing a lot of experimenting in hopes of achieving the ripest grapes with the most natural acid. It can be done in California, Washington, and Oregon. Instead of trying to fit into a category or specific palate why do vintners not do their work in the vineyard and simply let the wine be?

Comments

[טיפים לאיפור]

It is a walking encyclopedia of information and is probably the best farmer in the valley. Picking pinot noir that looked like raisins for their customers and their meaning quite at that time.

[adam]

You think I am off base with any assertion. This particular one is not my assertion. This was the view of most vineyard owners and managers I have spoken with. Their clients, "winemakers" would be lost in the vineyard. That is their consensus Once again I leave the bold statements to people who know more than I.

What I can not figure out is why you get so fired up. I know you know your way around a vineyard and I never said you did not. Do your winemakers tell you how to leaf pull their section of vineyard? Do they ask you to irrigate a certain way? Do they tell you when to pick your grapes? Do they ask you about crop covers and beneficial insects. Do they help you prune or ask you to prune their vines differently? I would venture to say that they "trust" you to do the work and then make wine with the grapes that they are given.

You also probably know maybe 2% of the winemakers in the United States. That is a great place to make your assumption from.

Please do not assume things about me. That makes an ass out of you and me.

Did I say anything about large wineries in my post?

[Jerry D. Murray]

I think your a touch off base in your assertion that winemakers know nothing about vineyards. I would say that ANY winemaker knows more about vineyards than ANY wine writer. Certainly some know more than others but winemakers have a knowledge of vineyards unique to thier experience... the wine.

I also get the impression that you work on the assumption that 'large' wineries rely on tinkering in the cellar and pay no attention to the vines. This couldn't be further from the truth. The vineyard experiementation you speak of is done to the greatest extent and with the most control (statistically speaking) by large wineries. I can assure you that collectively, Gallo has forgotten more about the effects of leaf pulling, crop levels etc, than most other wineries in the world.

This knowledge doesn't translate into better wines per se but it does translate into better wines at better prices. That is where thier priorites lie.