Circle Update

Above left,Peter Morgan;above right, theJancis Robinsonspittoon – allbooths aresubsidisedby wine tradeindividuals andcompanies; left,the tasting.Plumpton College lessonsbroad range of sophisticated analytical techniques – atomic absorption andgas chromatography included. Collaborating with Geisenheim University,the college’s work also investigates clone and rootstock choices – possiblysomewhat haphazard in some English vineyards – and given that we havewell-known climatic restrictions in Britain there is watchful monitoring ofgrape physiology and ripeness. Three English vineyards including ChapelDown have been drawn into this collaborative research. .Plumpton will now be working closely for a year with Champagne scientistProfessor Richard Marchal (University of Reims), ‘on loan’ to the college ona sabbatical, whose pioneering work especially on Champagne sensoryanalysis and scoring may well be of further interest both to the AWE andthe CWW. There will also be mutually-beneficial exchanges with the highlyregardedsensory department of Nottingham University, whose expertise hasyet to extend to wine.With climate change broadly in mind, the college has just obtainedEU funding to join the two-year Leonardo scheme involving six Europeanuniversities across Bulgaria, Italy, France and the UK studying viticulturevs. climatic variability. The results of this will be published and accessibleon the web once the studies are complete. Down at vineyard level, there’salso current collaboration with the University of Ulster on the effects thatdifferently managed growth tubes may have on vines.As the light brown apple moth is a seriously unwelcome visitor to someEnglish vineyards there is already on-going study of the pest and its meansof control and, in association with Richard Smart, the college is undertakingresearch into ‘best-practice’ canopy management to suit different vineyardcircumstances.The college has already modelled a viticulture/climate map of the UK,and Belinda’s view is that English winemakers need the virtue of adaptabilityand should be much more proactive early on in the growth cycle of theirvineyards; consequently studies on the possibility of obtaining earlier budburstare currently under way with Greyfriars winery near Guildford. (Doesthe answer lie in the use of horticultural UV-permeable clear plastic, orerecting a ‘Wimbledon Centre-Court roof’ over the vines? Watch this space!)The viticultural research portfolio also embraces work on nitrogenfixation (mycorrhizal fungi), and a French company is providing portableoptical sensors to take around the vineyards to assess leaf chlorophylls andphenolic ripeness. Plumpton is also investigating the balance between nativeand alien trees around vineyards given their possible effects on drainageand their degree of competition with vines for water and nutrients, let alonethe balance of the insects, beneficial or otherwise, which they may harbour.Circle Update October 2011 17