Darwin Vander Stelt wrote:

> My experience with the 2003 harvest has really brought home to me the
> importance of limiting the production if you want quality wine. My hobby
> vinyard had about 250 vines producing last year, I use close spacing, 4 x
> 5, and I fed the birds at least half the grapes. I still made 120 gals of
> wine! Compared to the year before when I thinned much more agressively,
> the wine is tasteless and watery. There are no off flavors, no evident
> cellar problems, just plain old watery wine. I bought bird netting this
> year and am really cutting the crop back to maybe half of what we had last
> year. It was
> a lesson I'll never forget! You can read it in a book but it doesn't
> really
> make an impact like tasting a barrel of cab franc/merlot that tastes like
> its maybe 1/3 chardonnay with some water added! So my advice is plant
> some extra, buy bird netting, and severely limit the yields.

Darwin, where do you live? 2003 in the Mid Atlantic was a Horrible year for
grapes. 4 x 5 is fairly close spacing. Do you use divided canopy
trellising? I switched from VSP to the Lyre and prune to one counting bud
spurs. The vines are loving it.




> "William Frazier" > wrote in message
> ...
>>
>> kenny wrote "Thanks for the information I will set down and work out how
>> much I think I will really need I was a little aggressive with the amount
> of
>> wine I need in a year probably 50 gallons will be more in the balll park.
>> that is with putting 1/2 up to age for an extended time."
>>
>> Kenny - The old suggestion of 1 gallon wine per vine is a good ballpark
>> figure. But don't let that stop you from planting several hundred vines
> if
>> you have the room and the interest. With lots of vines you can limit the
>> clusters of grapes per vine and increase the quality of your harvest.
> Also,
>> you will have bad weather some years and if you have lots of vines you
>> may
>> still have enough grapes for your wine. And, you may end up selling part
> of
>> your harvest to offset the cost of chemicals, fertilizer, etc. I would
>> leave 10 feet between rows...makes it much easier to drive the tractor
>> through the vineyard to spray fungicide and insecticide. This farming
>> you know.
>>
>> Bill Frazier
>> Olathe, Kansas
>>
>>