10/05/05 Growing good wine grapes

Welcome to Vine to Wine this is your host Linda Moran and this week we are going to continue to answer a backlog of email questions. A listener wrote to ask, "What can a wine grape grower do if the vintage is not looking as though it will be very good?" Although Mother Nature plays a very big role in the determination of a good vintage from a not so good vintage, you must understand that growing vinifera, or wine grapes, is like any other agriculturally based industry. A good deal of study has gone into the science of grape growing to the point that GPS is actually used to lay out the rows in some vineyards to be certain that they are planted in the exact position desired on that piece of land. Research has shown that most of all selecting the right kind of grapes for the site and the climate will reduce the frustration that growers may have. Growers select the variety of grapes that best suit their property. There are advanced methods of determining disease resistant rootstock and irrigation techniques have become highly advanced. There are ways to overcome too much moisture by spraying with copper sulfate. In addition, many grape growers employ differing methods of canopy management to increase the quality of the fruit. Methods of thinning the number of clusters on each vine will also increase the quality of the fruit. In short, there is a lot that the grower can do to help Mother Nature give us a good harvest each year. And the more they learn the fewer bad vintages we really have some are simply better than others. Remember to send your wine questions to Linda at vine to wine dot net and thank you for joining me on today's Vine to Wine.