Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Playing for keeps

So it's official. While they haven't run my credit card for the full $3,550 in first year fees (and yes, I'm checking my Visa balance several times a day), I received an email that says I have been accepted as a first year candidate for the Master of Wine program (programme, if you’re British).

As promised, you can read my application essay below. I hope these will get easier in the future.

I have been trying to 'study' a little since I sent in my application in August, though without a mentor (should be assigned this week) or any other solid direction, I have just been taking terms from the syllabus, defining them, and writing down some relevant points including positives, negatives, and any controversies. Since you could be revising a topic like "oxygen" for months, at this point I have limited my sources to:

* The Oxford Companion to Wine edited by Jancis Robinson
* Understanding Wine Technology by David Bird
* Viticulture - An Introduction to Commercial Grape Growing for Wine Production by Stephen Skelton
* My old WSET Diploma study guides (great summary tables!)

So I have a solid start to papers 1 and 2 (viti/vini). I still don't have many real-world examples to support arguments or whatnot, but now that a skeleton is in place, I will be talking and researching to fill in those examples while I really understand the wine world and actually start revising old exam essays.

In order to dig into the controversies a little more, I'm reading Malcolm Gluck's "The Great Wine Swindle" and Michael Veseth's "Wine Wars: The Curse of the Blue Nun, The Miracle of Two Buck Chuck, and the Revenge of the Terroirists" and incorporating those into notes as they fit. I've got a few other books to reference for general myth-busting or just to generally make sure I understand all the issues going on in the wine business that I just may take for granted as 'that's just the way it is'.

The good news is that there is a Fall Course Day in New York next Monday, so I should have a better sense of how to spend my study time after that.

Yes, I have gotten lazy/broke and have not been doing much in the way of focused tastings as of late. I expect to get more guidance on this front at the Course Day as well.

In the meantime, I'm going to break into some vintage bubbly and you can ready what I had to say about "Examine the principal factors within the direct control of the vineyard manager which affect the quality of the grapes". Enjoy!


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Quality grapes are the starting point for quality wine, and the cliché that wine is made in the vineyard is true. There are several factors that a vineyard manager can control directly to impact the quality of the grapes produced -- including soil preparations, treatments to the vine and canopy throughout the growing season, and, most importantly, measures relating to the harvest. To achieve quality fruit, the vineyard manager will be looking to make decisions (in a given existing vineyard) that will produce grapes that will reach their full phenolic maturity (for the style of wine they wish to make) and are free from rot and disease.

:: Soils ::
Starting at the ground level, the proper amount of moisture in the soil is an essential input photosynthesis and helping the grapes reach maturity. In areas where it is legal to do so, a drip irrigation system will help when Mother Nature is not. Once an irrigation system is established, several programs to give the grapes the minimal amount of moisture to survive should be employed, including reduced deficit irrigation (where water is only applied when needed, as measured by the moisture content in the leaves of the vine), and partial rootzone drying (where only one side of the vine (and thus roots)) are watered. Etude winery in California employs the former irrigation strategy, which they believe contributes significantly to the quality of grapes that they produce.

Management of weeds is important to grape quality, particularly in younger vines whose more shallow root systems would have to compete with the weeds. While helpful to protect against erosion, younger vines might benefit from not having to compete with weeds for water and nutrients while producing grapes.

:: Vine ::
The manipulations to a vine are key to producing quality grapes. Pruning not only helps to maintain the size and shape of a vine, but pruning back unnecessary vegetative growth will have a positive impact on energy that the plant puts into growing the grapes. Related to pruning, the management of the overall canopy is also key to allow proper air circulation and sunshine (or not) to reach the grapes during the growing season. For example, the vines at Chateau Beausejour in Montagne-St-Emilion are regularly trimmed throughout the season to keep vine vigour in check, and once verasion is taking place in the vineyard, they employ ‘leaf pulling’, where leaves are pulled away from the shading the fruit zone, allowing as much sunshine as possible to reach the grapes and help them reach maturity. Having a trained and available workforce to carry out these individual tasks throughout the growing season is a consideration that will have an impact on your budget for the type of wine you are making.

Along with pruning and canopy management, the training of the vine that is appropriate for the varietal is important. Many training systems (particular those that are spur-trained) include permanent wood that would not be easy for a vineyard manager to change season-to-season, but whatever the existing shape of permanent wood, training the vine to open up the canopy (i.e., maximize the air circulation and sunshine or shade) will help to allow work to be done more easily in the vineyard and reduce rot in more humid areas.

Winter pruning will also directly impact the yield of the vine during the following growing seasons and should be employed with care. Winter pruning entails not only cutting away the prior year’s growth, but also selecting how many buds will remain for the following years’ growth. This has a direct impact on yield and thus, a direct impact on quality.

Finally, in relation to the vine, it bears to mention where time and finances allow, grafting an appropriate clone for the given climate (and macro-climate) in a vineyard would also enhance the quality of the grapes.

:: Harvesting Options ::
The most important decision a vineyard manager (and winemaker) makes all year is when to harvest the grapes and is everything to achieving the quality level in grapes that is needed. Finding the right moment when sugars, acid, and tannins are in balance is important, as well as how the fruit is harvested. Where it is practical, machine harvesting would increase quality to the extent that a large vineyard area can be picked in a relative short period of time. This would be especially important where coming rains threaten the crop. Note, however, that the vineyard needs to be specially spaced and on a relative flat land in order to use machine harvesting. On the other hand, hand-harvesting would be ideal for helping to separate the best fruit from damaged or less ripe fruit. This is clearly a more expensive option for harvesting, but if the budget will allow for it, you can train workers to help bring in the fruit as unblemished as possible. Sometimes, as in the steep terraces of the Mosel that Weingut Leitz works, hand-harvesting is the only option.

Employing a sorting table at the winery would also help to choose the best grapes to increase quality of your wine, though the vineyard manager would be more responsible for harvesting the fruit out of the vineyard.

:: Conclusion ::
There are many decisions a vineyard manager must make in order to grow grapes at a specified level of quality. From the soils, to vine and canopy management, and especially harvesting timing and options, a vineyard manager has to think through and choose each method according to the budget and style (and quality) of the wine that they are going to make.