Vineyard Microbiology

I attended three sessions at the Wineries Unlimited Trade Show and Conference that were joint viticulture and enology sessions. They were slanted to viticulture though. The speaker line-up was interesting. There wasn’t a single American accent. Dr. Paolo Sabbatini was from Michigan via Italy. Dr. Markus Keller was from Washington via Switzerland. Professor Pascal Duran was from France. The first two speakers were easier to understand.

Dr. Sabbatini spoke about research studies that he had done centering around early basal leaf pulling’s effect on reducing rot. The data certainly supports basal leaf pulling at pre-bloom and bloom periods. How much this helps seems to be variety specific. Dr. Keller spoke of his research involving nitrogen. The vine needs nitrogen however too much nitrogen isn’t good. Several things were discussed to reduce or increase the amount of nitrogen to add to a vine. Professor Duran spoke of the movement that is supporting a more scientific approach to winegrowing and winemaking.

From today’s sessions, winemakers can take home a better understanding of things that are going on in the vineyard. Winegrowers can look at their own vineyards and determine if leaf pulling to reduce rot and nitrogen additions are something they should consider or not.

Quotes of the day:
Wine is not the end product of the grape; vinegar is.
Don’t compensate a mistake by making another.

Cheers,
Terry

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