Wine – Movement on the vines

Spring is a special time, symbolic of rebirth and renewal along with the warming and lengthening days and the promise of summer to come. For those whose living comes from the land, spring marks the beginning of a new year in a very real way. This is the case for winegrowers as much as anyone. The winter vineyard maintenance jobs have been done, and pruning should be finished by mid-September. Pruning is a critical operation, because it determines how the vines will fruit in the coming season. It is undertaken in the winter when the vines are bare and dormant. Because grape vines produce their fruit on the current season’s growth, the idea with pruning is to remove most of last season’s growth, but leave enough buds to produce the coming year’s shoots, leaves, flowers and fruit.

Pruning is one of the busiest times of the year for vineyard workers, as it can go on continuously from June through September. If the vines are not pruned they become an unruly entanglement of canes and shoots. This creates very dense growth in the next season, which means ineffective vines and, ultimately, unripe and possibly diseased fruit because the bunches are in a cool, moist environment, concealed from the light and heat critical for ripening healthy grapes.

I think we would all agree that if anything, this winter has been particularly wet. We have had a few frosts this year but the last month has seen above average temperatures, which can confuse a grapevine and cause it to bud early. From late August the early varieties such as chardonnay and pinot gris are showing “movement”. The new buds start as furry protuberances and gradually swell to the point where suddenly they burst into little shoots and leaves, and from this point their expansion and growth takes off. The rain may cause some vineyards to struggle to get tractors in for early season sprays to help prevent mould and unwanted insects like mealy bug.

By the end of September most grape varieties will have experienced budburst. If you look at the region’s vineyards from a distance right now you will see thin parallel lines of green rolling up and down the slopes, the new shoots and leaves emerging from last year’s canes which are clipped to the horizontal “fruiting wires”. The next critical event in the vineyard is flowering – more about that later.

Richard Robson
President, Matakana Winegrowers
matakanawine.co.nz