Birthing A Wine...

This is the short version of how all this beautiful, luscious birthing of a wine begins...

The clone vine (Chardonnay, Pinot Noir etc) that is purchased from vine nurseries just about anywhere on the planet that supports vines, is hand grafted onto an American root vine here. It is then usually planted in the ground at a nursery, usually on the west coast, and is monitored about three years until it is ready to be sold to vineyards for their further development.

Once it has traveled to its new home, it is placed in the ground and trained usually like you see above, in a three tier system. Not all vineyards use this tier system but most do as it makes it easier to hand prune and harvest. Once the clone vine has been growing in its home soil it takes about three years to develop into a usable grape.  Keep in mind through all of this that Mother Nature leads in this long dance. Climate is what is expected but weather is what we get so there are no guarantees.

A healthy mature grape vine will produce about six or seven bottles of wine in a season. Mature is a vine approximately nine to seventeen or so years old. An old vine is one that is usually in the mid twenties  and on... they produce maybe two to four bottles of wine in a growing season. There comes a time when the cost and effort of keeping that old vine means it has done its work and is retired.

A growing season is the length of time from the first bud break in the vineyard to the last day to a freeze.  Here in North Carolina, in a good year with bud break happening in early April there are about 180 growing degree days.  On the Pacific coast that can be well into the 250 degree days or longer.

Throughout the growing season the vines are hand tied and hand pruned.  As the grape leaves grow and stretch out and lay over the grape clusters blocking the sun from beating on those grapes which is what you want, those leaves have to be pruned by hand. The sun and dry conditions is what, simply said, is needed to raise the Brix level (sugar) in the grape which in turn helps determine the alcohol level.  The vine roots grow down (see above picture) six to eight feet, not out.  The hotter and dryer it is the harder the roots have to work to pump water up into the fruit which in turn helps to develop the Brix level. This  is what gives high quality full flavored fruit.  Too much rain water will give you big juicy grapes but not flavorful as the Brix level will not rise.  This is another reason you see most vineyards planted on hillsides...the ground water will run away from the root!

Harvest time in the vineyards is an event!  Harvest is determined by the Brix level in the grape.  The winemaker has a little tool called a refractometer, it looks almost like a little telescope.  Placed up to an eye, the Brix level can be determined by the refractometer peering into and measuring the Brix level in the nucleus of the grape. Ideally when it reads between 19 and 25 it is time to harvest.  If it measures too low and there are still some growing degree days left the winemaker may hold off and hope for sun and warmth to raise that level.  Some grapes are harvested by machine while others still prefer the hand picked as it limits the damage to the grape yield.

So you can see all the "hand work" that goes into growing and nurturing a bottle of wine.  Let's not forget about all the diseases and insects that also need to be battled in the vineyards.  As I have said many times...birthing a bottle of wine is part art and part science and the leader of it all is none other than Mother Nature.

I hope you have enjoyed a few more wine tidbits.  Maybe you will look at that glass that you sniff, swirl and sip a little differently now.

Cheers...