Ulrich Hoffman, winemaker, in his lab
It is essential to pick grapes at the right level of ripeness and, whilst this can be judged on appearance alone, most growers monitor berry sugar and acid levels. As the grapes ripen the the sugars increase and the acidity declines. The desired level of ripeness will depend on the style of wine you want to make. In cool climates like the UK acidity levels tend...
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I now feel like a proper farmer as I'm always complaining about the weather!
This year it has been pretty awful for growing grapes. The wind and rain at the end of June/early July resulted in poor fruit set, and we have had little sun since then to ripen the grapes. In July we had 12% less sunshine compared to the average of 1971-2000 and in August 20% less. Temperatures were also much lower and...
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Richard Smart at Denbies
Dr Richard Smart is an Australian viticulturist and a leading expert in canopy management. He is often referred to as "
the flying vine doctor". See
www.smartvit.com.auRecently Richard visited our vineyard and also gave a Masterclass seminar at Denbies Wine Estate in Dorking. The subject of his talk was "
Practical Applications of Canopy Management" and covered optimum vigor,...
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Powdery Mildew on Pinot Noir
Unfortunately we now have Powdery Mildew on the some of the Pinot Noir and a few of the Chardonnay grapes. It's quite isolated at the moment and interestingly is mainly in the rows where the FrostGuard machine was sited which prevented proper spraying earlier in the year.
Powdery Mildew is caused by the fungus Erisiphe necator. It only infects green parts of the vine and...
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The 3rd bunch gets the chop!
Vines will often produce more fruit than the trunk and root system can support, which can stress the vine and also result in the bunches not ripening properly. This isn't a big problem for us this year, as many of the berries didn't pollinate properly which has resulted in small and incomplete bunches (see earlier post - Coulour and Millerandage).
Non the less Alex has...
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Veraison - Pinot Noir
The Pinot Noir grapes are starting to change colour from green to red. This is the start of the ripening process and in viticulture is called
veraison.
Grape berries have two distinct growth phases. The initial phase is when the cells divide and expand and the grapes begin to swell and fill out the bunch. After veraison the acidity decreases due to degradation of Malic acid,...
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A Pinot Noir vine before leaf removal
After leaf pulling
Leaf pulling is the removal of leaves around the grape bunches, which allows the vines to dry off much quicker after rain or heavy dew which in turn makes the vines less susceptible to the spread of fungal diseases like mildew and botrytis. It also improves the coverage of spray applications, and improves sunlight penetration which helps to...
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Powdery Mildew
Sadly Powdery Mildew has arrived at the vineyard, at the moment primarily infecting some of the Pinot Noir on Block A.
Powdery Mildew survives the winter either within infected buds, which subsequently germinate to form mildewed “flag shoots”, or as tiny fruiting bodies that lodge in the bark on the vine which release new spores to infect youngtissues in the spring. Leaves are highly...
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Vineyards in Assmannshausen
The Rhinegau is one of the most famous and beautiful wine making areas of the world and is also a centre of competence for organic viticulture and wine making. At Geisenheim there is a grape breeding institute and research centre where organic viticulture is a compulsory subject for all of their 1000 students. In Germany there are 215 wine organic growers, farming 1,400...
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Coulure
Millerandage
If the weather is bad during flowering it can effect pollination and fruit set. This can result in bunches with small and large grapes, a condition known as
Millerandage which is often called "Hen and Chicken". The big berries have been fertilised and have pips and sugar but the little berries are sour and seedless. Poor pollination can also result in
Coulure, where large...
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Birds can be a big nuisance in the vineyard, especially as the fruit begins to ripen when some like nothing more to snack on the grapes. This is particularly worrying for us as we are close to a landfill site which is often covered in scavenging birds.
Vineyard managers use a variety of techniques to try and protect the fruit, such as hanging shiny CD's on the trellising, automatic firecrackers,...
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Now that we are nearing our first harvest we need to start thinking about the style of still rosé wine we would like to produce. Hopefully we will get some good quality fruit and we will have something to drink next year.
To help form our views, a group of us met at the vineyard last week to taste some of the best English rosé wines, including samples from Camel Valley, Chapel Down, Hush Heath,...
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