Wine Diary
Summer in the vineyard III
The vines should now no longer grow so quickly. The vine should concentrate its energy a little more on the development of the grapes. If the tendrils are allowed to grow freely, they will soon hang down from the ‘trellises’ and form an almost bell-shaped canopy. Underneath, the microclimate would be rather damp and could affect the health of the leaves and grapes. Timely ‘topping’ (our term for topping the shoots slightly above the wire frame) counteracts this. However, this also means that some of the energy that the plant has already invested is lost. At the same time, the growth of the berries can be accelerated too much, especially if they have also been divided*. This also stimulates the formation of new, unwanted ‘stingy shoots’. We therefore endeavour to achieve an optimum in some top locations by so-called coiling. The young, elastic shoots are not ‘topped’, but wrapped several times around the top wire of the frame. They then do not hang downwards and can also contribute to energy production, while the grape zone only receives gentle growth stimuli. In this way, we also want to achieve somewhat smaller, more flavoursome berries and prevent diseases.
