Premium wine grape vineyards differ from “production” vineyards – those used to make low to medium priced wines, in several ways.
Plant materials: Superior grapevine selections often produce lower yields than vines selected for large scale production vineyards. Fewer clusters with fewer berries per cluster and smaller berries produce smaller yields (weight per vine) but higher fruit and wine quality. Many of the aromas, pigments and tannins are produced in the grape skins. Smaller berries have a greater surface area per unit volume and make more intensely flavored and colored wines.
Low vigor rootstocks are used to make small vines with open canopies.
Pruning: Vines are pruned during the dormant season to maintain the vine structure and, more importantly, to reduce the crop potential. In fact, pruning is the primary means of crop control in grapevines. White Pine’s vineyards are trained to a vertical shoot positioned trellis (VSP). This training system places the fruit zone at a height of 36 inches. The shoots naturally grow upright through catch wires and are easy to manage with this training system. The fruit is all on the fruiting wire and easy to work with from bloom through harvest. We leave only 4 to 5 buds per foot of row length (about 24 buds per vine). This approach only allows the vines to produce between 3 and 4 tons per acre which has been determined to be the level at which the best wines are produced.
Canopy management: Techniques used to open the vine canopy for sunlight to penetrate and fall on grape clusters. These include: 1) shoot thinning; 2) leaf removal in the fruit zone; 3) hedging of shoots overgrowing the trellis and, 4) cluster thinning to balance crop with leaf area and to be sure clusters don’t shade adjacent clusters. These techniques ensure pesticide sprays cover the leaves and clusters.
It is not possible to produce vinifera grapes in our humid environment organically. As the fruit approaches maturity, it would most likely rot with autumn rain events. However, our sustainable approach allows us to minimize the use of pesticides and let natural sunlight destroy fungi (UV light is a powerful antifungal agent) and enhanced airflow in the open vine canopies dry out fruit and leaves quickly, thereby reducing the chance of fungal infection.
Vineyard floor management: There is a lot of discussion at present about “regenerative” production techniques in agriculture. Regenerative techniques protect soil and encourage a healthy soil ecosystem with bacteria, earth worms and fungi (to name a few organisms) that cycle nutrients and enhance plant growth. We have always used “sustainable” practices which overlap with regenerative practices. Our sustainable practices include zero synthetic fertilizer applications, canopy management discussed above, native plant species in row middles, no cultivation and limited use of herbicides. Together these practices yield healthier grapevines that make ripe, flavorful grapes and wines. The native vegetation in row middles harbors beneficial insects that help control insect pests. The diversity of plants in this system contributes to a healthy vineyard ecosystem.
Complete fruit maturity: By using an informed, reduced input approach to grape growing, our vines have reduced growth (vigor), open canopies and balanced crops with no more than 4 tons per acre of production in white vinifera grapes and 3 tons per acre in red vinifera grapes. At those crop levels there is plenty of leaf area to produce sugar, flavor, aroma and color in our grapes as they mature. We achieve longer ripening periods, allowing us to produce wines that rival those worldwide.