DJ Hombre
Napa Valley, California
Barrel Filler
Posts:1366
 | | 09/29/2003 7:08 PM |
| Often I read about how some vintages contain low - medium - high yields in vineyards.
Now I know that to have a high yield in a vineyard can lead to weak grapes, and that a moderate / medium yield is what's desired (I think) by premium wineries.
However, what do low yields do? In an off vintage when a vineyard produces a low yield, are the grapes as concentrated as a medium? Or are they sharing the characteristics of a grape from a high yield but with less abundance? | | | |
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ChangeMe
Master of Wine
Posts:11169
| | 09/29/2003 8:05 PM |
| My guess would be that it varies with the cause of the low yield. If the yield is low due to drought, the sugar may be high but the grapes may not be ripe enough. BHVineyard taught me about drought stress. If the drought has been severe, some rain may actaully increase the sugar in the grapes. Some liquid is needed for sugar transport to the grapes.
If the low yield is due to frost at flowering, followed by a normal Summer and Fall, the grapes may produce desired juice, just in lower quantities.
Vineyard managers remove half, sometimes more, of the grape clusters to ensure that the remaining grapes receive the concentrated juice necessary for good wine. At Ken Wright, they leave only one cluster per vine, and it's the bottom cluster, under the assumption that nearer the roots is better for the grapes. They remove the other clusters early in the season. Some other wineries and vineyards wait to see which clusters look the best before dropping fruit. It's striking to walk through a vineyard and see all the clusers of grapes on the ground. | | | |
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Randy Sloan
St. Helena
Barrel Sampler
Posts:2076
| | 09/30/2003 12:59 AM |
| Quote:
It's striking to walk through a vineyard and see all the clusers of grapes on the ground.
You ain't just whistlin' Dixie, Board-o. Imagine if you had payed to grow those grapes now sitting on the ground. Striking is a good word for it.
Seriously, Board-o has pretty much described it. Premium growers attempt to concentrate the flavors in grapes, choosing quality rather than quantity. There's been some move in grape purchase contracts to price according to acre rather than by ton, encouraging growers to not overcrop. | |
Randy Sloan
Match Vineyards | |
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David Niederauer
Los Gatos, CA
Master Sommelier
Posts:15756
| | 09/30/2003 4:44 AM |
| | Last year while walking with Ron Melville walking through one of his vineyard he told me he sells to one winemaker who insists that they drop all the grapes except for one cluster on each vine. | | | |
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DJ Hombre
Napa Valley, California
Barrel Filler
Posts:1366
| | 09/30/2003 5:57 AM |
| I don't see why they don't save the grapes they cut off from the ground and give them to nice old ladies so they can jam them. 
My Nana makes grape jam every once in awhile from grapes she gets from Round Hill.
Think of the new business that the wine growing areas could burst into! GRAPE JAM! Say NO MAS to Welch and Knotts Berry Farm! Hello Robert Mondavi Cabernet Jelly Reserve! Only $45 a pint!
Oh, and thanks for the responses. | | | |
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DukeRiley
McMinnville, OR
Barrel Sampler
Posts:2000
| | 09/30/2003 1:05 PM |
| | In Oregon purchasing grapes by the acre is the standard method used by high quality producers. The idea up here was pioneered by Domaine Drouhin about 13 or 14 years ago. Before DDO, people, as a rule, didn't drop fruit. Before then, the good vintages required a dry fall and an earlier event that naturally limited yields, like a frost. 1983 was a good example of this. | |
Heater Allen Brewing
www.heaterallen.com | |
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TCK
Barrel Filler
Posts:1279
| | 09/30/2003 1:35 PM |
| DJ,
A noble thought, but they prune before the grapes mature. This way the grape vine will concentrate the remaining cluster with all of the goodness it would have used for a full bloom. The result is that the remaining grapes are "spoiled" like and only child by the plant and the result is ultra concentrated wine. | | | |
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Bob Bressler
Napa Valley
Wine Lover
Posts:4864
| | 10/01/2003 1:58 AM |
| | Following on to what TCK says - the birds won't even eat the grapes that are cut off, they are so under-ripe. | | | |
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skwid
Wine Connoisseur
Posts:5452
| | 10/01/2003 2:34 AM |
| | What happens with these grapes? Do they get tilled into the soil? Do they make good fertilizer? | | | |
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ChangeMe
Master of Wine
Posts:11169
| | 10/01/2003 2:37 AM |
| | They just let them lie there and rot into the soil. I guess they're a kind of natural fertilizer. | | | |
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Jeremy Matthew
Barrel Sampler
Posts:2067
| | 10/01/2003 4:08 AM |
| | It also promotes terroir longevity. | | | |
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