Yield and Wine Quality

RE: Yield and Wine Quality

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 02:06:56 GMT

We use alot of the cut grapes for verjus, but I'm fortunate to have a restaurant and greenhouse composting at the vineyard I work at. I'm a little on the fence, but I personally like a green Bordeaux, some may not. I do feel for the winemaker in the sense that he or she never wants to make an inferior product, the whole awards system, blah blah, yet as much as consistency plays a role, sometime Mother Nature is not kind to you after you've gone through this process and makes me wonder sometimes how less catastrophic it would be to lose grapes if we let more hang or what if we went for higher acid than less. I'm surprised our winemaker has a full head of hair.

RE: Yield and Wine Quality

William Davis — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 13:43:37 GMT

Steve,

Thanks for the article! I appreciate the way you ascribe yields to 'wine style' rather than quality, but I did have a question: Regarding yield, how much do you take into account the rootstock and clonal selections used when fruit or color thinning? Or are there more important factors to consider?

RE: Yield and Wine Quality

Chris Dunaway — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 23:25:38 GMT

Thanks for the great insights Steve! I had always assumed that less fruit on the vine contributed to higher quality, but it seems quality is viewed within a certain context of stye preference among those that share that opinion. Very good stuff, keep it coming!

RE: Yield and Wine Quality

Anonymous — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 18:43:18 GMT

Thanks Steve for such a valuable article. It's great to hear an objective (even if somewhat biased) perspective so one can make decisions more effectively on their viticultural practices. It's also nice to understand when producers explain they thin to the 1.5-2 tons/acre, how this is more about style than quality.

Thanks

RE: Yield and Wine Quality

Stevie Stacionis — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 22:20:12 GMT

Steve; the article offered a perspective I've never actually heard or considered. Total game-changer for me and I really value the personal insight you instilled into the piece alongside clearly described other industry perspectives and practices!

RE: Yield and Wine Quality

Kent Benson — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 15:20:27 GMT

Thanks, Steve. I greatly appreciate you helping us armchair viticulturalists better understand what you do.

RE: Yield and Wine Quality

Steve Matthiasson — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 14:51:10 GMT

Hi Kent, leaving less buds at pruning is a risk--who knows what the weather will be like at flowering--and it will result in more vigorous shoots; the fewer the growing points, the more vigorous each shoot--the vigor is less spread out. If the bud count is restricted to the point that themsjoots are overly vigorous, the fruit will ripen poorly. This is why balanced pruning is so important. So restricting yields by pruning isn't going to work very well with a large clustered heavy cropping variety or clone.

Richard Smart is a classic viticulturist, who advocates balanced vines, rather than absurdly low yields. I'm very influenced by his canopy management and vine balance philosophy. He continued the work of Kliever and Shaulis, and their concept of vine balance is the current viticultural paradigm.

RE: Yield and Wine Quality

Kent Benson — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 01:28:27 GMT

Steve, thanks so much, very helpful! I have a couple follow up questions.What's different about dropping fruit as opposed to leaving fewer buds during pruning? In other words, why not control yield exclusively through pruning?

Also, I've read that Richard Smart is not a big fan of green harvests. If I recall correctly, he blames the need for it on poor canopy management. Are there aspects of his canopy management techniques which you employ?

RE: Yield and Wine Quality

Jim Huston — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 21:45:21 GMT

Great article. Thank you for sharing your work.

RE: Yield and Wine Quality

Steve Matthiasson — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 20:25:00 GMT

Thanks Jason, Brian, and Michael. This was a tough article to write--as you can see, it's not very clear, even to someone immersed in it. I think I talked myself into a couple of circles. This article is a bit more confusing and contradictory than my other articles because the practice of thinning fruit is that way! Hopefully this gets you up to speed so when folks tell you about how they restrict their crop, you can at least ask why and have a conversation. You can see that I have a bias towards less fruit thinning--in a world of finite resources, I hate to see a precious resource of grapes thrown on the ground without being approached from the standpoint of reason, rather than tradition or habit. Not that I don't love tradition in winemaking, but this is a recent tradition, pretty much post-war, not something with a long historical precedent.

RE: Yield and Wine Quality

michael villas — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 19:18:31 GMT

Steve, your articles are exceptional and insightful. Thanks for an inside peek in to a vineyard managers thought process.

RE: Yield and Wine Quality

Brian McClintic — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 07:34:30 GMT

Steve, thank you for another thoughtful article. Keep them coming please.

RE: Yield and Wine Quality

Jason Fox — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 18:11:43 GMT

I totally agree with this article, in that it mentions and supports what I have believed in winemaking. I have worked for three wineries in their cellars, and pretty much across the board, everyone is looking for 3-4 tons per acre depending on varietal. I suppose you should know I live in the Walla Walla Valley AVA, for reference. For Cab Sauv and Franc, we usually want a lower yield, as they have a later budbreak and take longer to mature. In Cab, I look for between 25 and 26 Brix, but really it is all on taste. Cab Franc sometimes needs 27-28 Brix to reduce the green and herbaceous characters, but don't we really look for that in a nice Cab Franc?! We can always water back to reduce the potential alcohol. For Merlot, we can ripen 4-5 tons to the acre and make some pretty awesome wines. Again, usually 25-26 Brix works well for maturity by taste. Sauvignon Blanc, the king of tons to the acre can ripen with 6-7 even 8 tons to the acre sometimes, especially in places with long warm growing seasons. While WW AVA is not that long and warm, we can do 6 tons to the acre pretty well, but they won't have the massive aromas we see in NZ SB.

In the end, I am a fan of hanging what the vine can clearly handle. We don't need to cut off a quarter of the fruit to get the sugar content when we really need maturity in flavor and balance in our wines. Hang more fruit=slower ripening=better flavors and balanced acids.