Fine Tuning

The pace in the vineyard has not slowed, but we are slowly transitioning from the basics to fine tuning. Basics refers to the more mundane tasks of tying up shoots and hedging excessively long shoots. A rainy spring has stimulated vine growth, so we will be occupied with these jobs for the foreseeable future.

However, we are also engaged in aerating the fruit zone. Our vines are trained so that all the clusters are located along the bottom trellis wire. This zone (about 30” above the ground) can be densely packed with clusters, leaves, and small lateral shoots. Our job is to remove some, but not all, of the green vegetation from this zone. We fine tune according to variety and desired wine style. The goal is to have good air flow and some dappled sun on the clusters. But because of climate change we are leaving more leaves than we used to. This is to avoid having too much hot sun on the clusters and as protection, albeit minor, against the increasing chance of hail damage (a thicker canopy of leaves can give some protection to the clusters).

This year the potential crop is large. Too large. If we leave all these clusters on the vines the resulting wines could lack body and concentration. Each vine can only produce a finite amount of photosynthates that go the ripening and flavoring of the grapes. The larger the crop, the less goodies for each grape.

As we make our first aeration pass through the vines, we are removing short shoots that carry clusters. The short shoots don’t have enough leaves to properly ripen their grapes. We want to avoid uneven ripening as this can lead to green, astringent flavors and a thin mouthfeel in the resulting wines. We will make another pass in July to remove additional clusters based on the leaf-to-grape ratio of each vine. A final pass is done for the reds when the grapes start to turn color. It is the one time when we can see ripeness, as the lagging grapes don’t color up in sync with the rest of the crop.

All this fine tuning is critical for defining wine style and quality. When winegrowers say that wine is made in the vineyard, this is what they are doing right now to make the 2022 vintage a success.

• Subscribe to Linden Updates for the latest vineyard and cellar information.

Linden Vineyards / Learn More / Latest at Linden | Journal: June 27, 2022