Finding Your Way to Vine Balance - PA Wine Grape Network

Finding Your Way to Vine Balance
Maryland Wine and Grape Industry Annual Meeting
Mark L. Chien
Viticulture Extension Educator
Penn State Cooperative Extension
http://pawinegrape.com

Pindar Vineyard, North Fork of Long Island
Temperance Hill Vineyard, Willamette Valley, OR
Fruit Research and Extension Center
Adams County (near Gettysburg)

Our Common Viticultural Objectives
• High quality wines of all types requires ripe and clean fruit
• In the north vines must achieve maximum cold hardiness
• In any given year, canopy and crop management (vine balance) can have
more impact than any other inputs!
• It works for all species, varieties, clones of grape vines intended to make
good wine!
Merlot on VSP at
Waltz Vineyard in
Manheim

It’s complicated: what wine growers are attempting to balance…
Environmental and viticultural inputs that impact on grape quality and composition
How does the wine grower bring these elements into balance to create viticultural harmony,
equilibrium, uniformity, synchronicity, and typicity in the vine and ecosystem.

Observations about Vine Size and Balance
• How big will a vine grow? Once you know, how do you
balance it?
• The process: careful site evaluation (determine capacity) >
potential vine size > vineyard design (vine density and
spacing) > viticulture (proper balance achieved through
canopy and crop management)
• Analyze the 3 dimensional vine for balance (depth, width and
height

Two Choices for High Quality Wine
• Site is already selected: determine the wine that best matches
the characteristics of the site. Eg. High capacity site > higher
yields > production style wines.
• Site is not yet selected: determine type, style and price point
of wine desired. Seek the site with characteristics (capacity)
that can fulfill the wine objectives. Eg. Ultra-premium fine
wines > low yields > low to moderate capacity site.

Challenges to Achieving Balance in Maryland
Making fine wine in the East. We have issues . . .
• Better soil and climate mapping and experience to understand soil fertility
and moisture
• Poor site evaluation and improper vineyard design
• Lack of viticulture experience and management skills.
• Lucie Morton: stop whining and start managing!
• What does vine balance look and taste like in Maryland?

What is Vine Balance?
• Justice Potter Stewart: … as with pornography, “I know it when I see it.”
• Thinking backwards: start with the type, style and price point of the wine,
• …then imagine the utopian vine to achieve this wine.
• …then work backwards toward vineyard design to achieve a balanced vine.
• Understanding the terroir to achieve balance: soil, climate, plant, viticulture
• Then apply holistic, sustainable, creative, intelligent vineyard management
• With experience you should be able
to recognize a balanced vine

Yield and Quality: is the smallest vine with the
tiniest yield the ultimate goal?
• Diminishing return in quality
• What is the perceptible quality difference
• The Temperance Hill yield trial: 4 t/a, 3 t/a, 2 t/a, 1 t/a
• Measuring yield per vine vs. yield per acre
• In general, vine density is more important for red wine
production than white wines
• Internationally among balanced vines of all sizes, the best
wines come from smaller vines with lower yields

A balanced vine can come in all different sizes…

Benchmarks of
vine balance
(small vines).
Chateau Lafite-
Rotschild in the
Medoc.
Why and how?

Large Merlot vines on vertically
divided Scott Henry in balance at
Paradocx Vineyard.
Medium size vines at Black
Ankle Vineyard in 2007. Very
nice balance!
When is a vine too BIG?
Or, too small?

Big vines in Napa – pre-VSP
12x8 spacing, 1 wire vertical
California sprawl system. Are
they in balance?

Cesare at Robert Voerzio in
Barolo – Nebbiolo at 70cm
Chateau Ausone in St Emilion – Merlot
At 20,000 vines per hectare (8000/ac)

Balance is achieved before the vines are planted:
modesty is the best policy!
• Again, start with the wine: type, style, and price point
• Site selection: the single most important decision for a vineyard
• Vine size: SO important. The goal is to grow a vine whose size meets the
wine type, style and price point goals
• Site evaluation: determining potential vine size so balance can be
designed into the vineyard. What is the soil capacity?
– Plant available water: especially the amount and distribution during
the growing season (drainage and slope)
– Soil fertility: moderate nutrient levels, especially nitrogen, also pH
• Choose the appropriate variety/clone AND rootstock
• Design the vineyard – IN ROW SPACING!!
• Plant vines. See what happens. Apply viticulture.

Influence of vine spacing on canopy architecture
Too Narrow
Optimum
Keep it open, but not too open
Too Wide
From: Intrieri and Filipetti American Journal of Enology and
Viticulture, 50 th Anniversary. Taken from a talk by Dr. Jim Wolpert.

Wouldn’t it be Great to do Nothing
• Viticulture is a band-aid for poor site selection that results in
poor vine balance. Intervention in the vineyard and cellar is a
weakness, not a strength.
• BUT: viticulture has great power to overcome a poor site and
design – e.g. Bordeaux garagistes, Karamoor Farm

Viticulture vs. Site
• Vigorous site? Who cares. Just manage it.
• Great site. The wine makes itself.
• Is one better than the other?
• We are in the viticulture period of an emerging wine region.
• Jim Law opinion: site and viticulture
• The Williams Seylem Allen vineyard example

Nelson Stewart at
Karamoor Farm
Not ideal
sites but
great wine
anyway.
Maximum
viticulture!
Jean-Luc Thunevin at Chateau Valandraud in St Emilion

Good Balance Good Canopy Good Wine
• Enhancing the microclimate of the vine: entry of light and air into the canopy
environment offers…
– Lower incidence of almost all diseases by reducing humidity levels and
allowing sunlight and wind to dry out leaves and fruit
– Improve spray penetration to interior of the canopy
– Allows sunlight to penetrate into the canopy interior for more efficient
photosynthesis
– Affects fruit zone temperature range allowing more efficient biosynthesis
of essential compounds
– Helps to reduce levels of methoxypyrazines (green, herbal flavors in red
wines) in berries
– Looks better, makes the grapes appear/are better quality and thus wine.
Wine makes like tidy canopies for their wines

The Crystal Ball: a soil pit and a very smart person
What is the soil capacity and potential vine size?

Vineyard design will determine vine balance
• Plant materials
– Varieties: natives and hybrids are naturally more disease resistant
– Vine morphology: small leaves, loose clusters, internode length
– Natural vine vigor: e.g. Cabernet Sauvignon vs. Pinot Noir
– Rootstock effects on vine size and vigor
– Plant healthy, certified vines and then take care of them!
• Trellis and training systems
– Single or divided canopies
– Head/cane vs. cordon/spur pruning and training
– Fruit wire height: effects on microclimate
– Overall canopy height: can the spray material reach the top
• Spacing decisions
– Between vines: quality
– Between rows: quantity

Vine Density: fitting the vine into the right space
• Harmony, equilibrium and balance in the canopy
• It is better to give a vine too much space than too little
• Distance between rows determines quantity
• Distance between vines determines quality
Juan in 1m x 1m at Mondavi
Lyre system on 12x6 in Napa

Measuring Vine Balance
• Grape and wine quality tell you the story of the vine
• Lucie Morton: know what it looks like
• Richard Smart’s Golden Rules (for mature vines)
– 4-5 shoots per foot
– 0.2-0.4 lb pruning wt per foot
– Canes 20-40 grams (0.8 to 1.5 oz) per cane
– 5-10:1 ratio fruit to pruning wt
• 1 to 1.5 leaf layers helps all problems with disease!
– Dappled light.
– The t-shirt effect.
– Check the shadow in mid morning and afternoon
• Shoots evenly spaced, proper length and diameter

A balanced vine and vineyard looks balanced

A Balanced Vine According to Mark Chien
• For premium hybrid and vinifera wines growing on VSP:
• Majority of shoots are . . .
– the same length
– about 50 inches long
– no bull canes, few stunted ones (average weight 1-1.5 oz)
• Other considerations:
– 2-5 shoots per foot of trellis
– 0-1 hedging passes per season
– Some leaf removal on the morning side
– 2 clusters or fewer per shoot reach optimal maturity with some yield
adjustment

More Measures of Balance
• The scientific target: 12-15cm² leaf area per gram of
fruit. Only graduate students do this.
• Determine the ideal shoot number and length based
on 3 dimensions of canopy
• Understand when a canopy is too dense or too thin
• Set the proper yield for consistently ripe fruit
• How does spacing between rows and vines affect
balance?

Canopy Management Practices
• Dormant pruning: it all starts here. Get the bud numbers right
• Manage the vine head and cane/cordon ends carefully
• Manage suckers
• If you have more than one cane or cordon or any combination per side of
vine, manage them according to shoots per linear distance
• June in the East is the critical month for vine balance (Jim Law). Be ready
for it!
• Shoot position like you mean it. The more vigorous a vine, the more
important shoot positioning becomes!
• Exposure and aeration comes from leaf and lateral removal, shoot and
cluster positioning, tunneling if a very vigorous canopy
• Hedge as much as you need to, no more or less
• Correct timing of positioning and wire placement is oh, OH so critical to
success!!!

Find and Emulate Good Canopies
Vertical shoot positioned Pinot Noir at Chaddsford

Marquette on high wire cane pruned at Lincoln Peak Vineyard in Vermont

When to Divide (or undivide)
• Greater (or less) than 0.4-0.5 lb of pruning weight per foot of trellis
• Vertical: Scott Henry
• Horizontal: Lyre (Alain Carbonneau)
• Developing the divided trellis and training system
• It’s not as complicated and expensive as it looks, or you have been told

Scott Henry training at
Paradocx Vineyard in
Chester County

Perfectly trained Norton on Geneva Double Curtain
at Chrysalis Vineyard in Virginia

Veraison and Harvest: crunch time for canopies
• Stop those shoot tips from growing! How? Any way you can!
– See Gill Giese and Tony Wolf research
• Late whites and reds still need good canopies for 4-6 weeks
– Disease control, especially PM, DM and late harvest rots
• Getting the fruit fully mature. Fruit zone architecture
• Building up carbohydrate (flesh and fuel) for overwintering
and spring growth

Don’t Forget the Fruit!
• Find the sweet spot of foliage-fruit balance
• Keep clusters well spaced and separated (i.e. shoots positioned)
• Fruit zone open to allow spray penetration
• Effectiveness of late season sprays
• Critical temperature needs related to fruit ripening processes
– Photosynthesis
– Flavors, color, tannin, methoxypyrazines
Merlot in Maryland
Pinot Noir in Ontario

Vine Balance = People
• Skilled labor and supervision
– Have the people ready when you need them
– Be out there working with the crew
– Have the money available to pay the crew
• Timing is absolutely critical to successful canopy management
– Early tasks
– Watch and understand the weather
– Grand period of growth. Be ready!
– Post-veraison canopy and crop management
• Labor costs are typically 50-70 percent of vineyard operating
expenses. Be prepared!

Ideas for Maryland Vine Balance
• Head for the hills! Steep, shallow, rocky soils and cooler
temperatures.
• Rigorous site evaluation and vineyard design
• If necessary divide the vine for balance, make better wine and
more of it!
• Black Ankle: the vines appeared to be in balance. What are
the conditions that achieve balance?
• Focus on site selection according to wine type, style and price
• Apply the absolute best viticulture possible to all vines

Further Information . . .
• Dr. Richard Smart: Sunlight into Wine
• Dr. Mark Greenspan, Advanced Viticulture:
http://www.winebusiness.com/wbm/?go=getArticle&dataId=70706
• Dr. Jim Wolpert, UC-Davis:
http://cop.extension.org/wiki/Vine_Balance_and_the_Role_of_Vineyard_Design
• Dr. Patty Skinkis, Oregon State University:
http://cop.extension.org/wiki/Basic_Concept_of_Vine_Balance

http://pawinegrape.com

Thank you for
your attention
Mark L. Chien
Viticulture Extension Educator
Penn State Cooperative Extension
http://pawinegrape.com