Wine Production : Vine to Bottle - Vinum Vine

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of ideas between supplier and customer, so necessary to improve
standards.
Today, when deciding on the location for a new vineyard, communication
to the markets may be less of a consideration, but reasonable
road access is still required. Indeed, in some countries, harvested
grapes may be trucked hundreds of miles to the winery. When investigating
potential sites for new vineyards, the factors to be considered
are many and complex. The researcher will need to consider aspect,
orientation, mesoclimate, soil composition and suitability for the
proposed grape varieties, availability of water for irrigation, availability
of labour, wine laws and any ‘appellation system’, and security.
CHAPTER 4
4.2 Density of planting of vines
The number of vines planted per hectare will depend on a number of
factors – including historical, legal, and practical. In France, in much
of Burgundy and parts of Bordeaux, including much of the Médoc,
vines are planted at a density of 10 000 per hectare. The rows are
1 metre apart, and the vines are spaced at 1 metre in the rows.
Mechanical working takes place by using straddle tractors, which
are designed to ride above vines with their wheels either side of
a row. A grower will state that by having such dense planting, the
vines are slightly stressed – having to fight for their water, and sending
their roots down deep to pick up all the minerals and trace elements.
Much of the water goes into the structure of the plant, and only a little
is left to go into the grapes. The growers believe that this results in
concentrated juice. Thus, dense planting helps restrict the yield per
hectare, although not necessarily per plant, which is perhaps just as
important. One of the problems that can arise with dense planting is
that of soil compaction – the wheels of the straddle tractor follow the
same path with each pass. In some other areas of Bordeaux, such
as the Entre-Deux-Mers, the district between the Rivers Garonne and
Dordogne, the plantings are less dense. Here the soils are heavier,
and historically two animals rather than one were needed to pull
a plough; thus the wider spacing. The replanting of vineyards sometimes
takes place on a vine by vine basis, and the average age of
the vines might be 40 or 50 years. Thus historical influences live on
simply out of practicality, but also there are many growers who are
loathe to change traditional practices.