Setting Up Your Own Wine Vineyards
Wine vineyards are wonderful places to be when they’re all nice and healthy, but getting them to that stage is a lot of work, especially if you don’t know how to grow grapes when you were setting them up. Each vineyard will have its own terroir, i.e., the geological and geographical characteristics which make up the immediate environment. This is vital importance to the productivity of the vineyard.
Careful selection of a location for your wine vineyards is one of the most crucial factors in successful wine production. Each grape variety has specific needs and just because you plant a vine doesn’t mean that it’s going to grow. You need to be able to figure out which varieties will thrive best under the local conditions in your area. Some people may think that it is only the wine making process which determines that quality of the wine. This is not so at all. The grapes themselves have a lot to do with it and they’re not likely to be of a very high quality if your wine vineyards themselves are poor.
In order for your grape bunches to live up to your expectations, you need to make certain that your wine vineyards are getting enough exposure to sunlight. No one says that your grape vines won’t grow at all in areas which are shaded. Some varieties may grow quite well. However, sunlight is one of the main catalysts in fruit bearing. If your vines are in too much shade they may not flower properly and the flowers that do develop will have a tendency to fall off early.
Your wine vineyards will also have an extended root system. This can stretch for as much as 30 feet and you can clearly see the potential for entanglement with other roots. In addition, your wine vineyards may be threatened by inhabitants of shade trees, or by the trees themselves. Any surrounding vegetation will compete with your wine vineyards for valuable nutrients. They may also act as a home to animals such as rodents and birds, which can attack your vine…not to mention a plethora of insect pests.
Climate is the single biggest factor which can affect the quality of the grapes in your wine vineyards. Very high temperatures have the ability to injure the grapes themselves through sun damage. However, it’s not only the maturing fruits themselves which can be affected. Severe heat can cause wilting of the vines and can also cause moisture loss from the soil.
On the other hand, very cold weather isn’t any better. Many a grape farmer has had to learn the hard way about the dangers of frost in grape growing on their wine vineyards. By freezing the moisture within living tissue, frost can kill the cells in every part of the grape vine, including the young buds. Now if you think about a grape, you’ll realize exactly how much moisture exists within it. So you can well imagine the damage that cold temperatures can bring about in these fruits. That’s why it’s so important that you pick a variety of grapes which ripens during the budding season and not when the wine vineyards are prone to frost.
Understanding the things that can impact upon your wine vineyards is essential in producing fine wine. A wine is only as good as the grapes that you put into it and your wine vineyards will not produce good grapes unless you learn all you can and take the time to make sure that your vines have what they need to be healthy. The best to do this is to set up your wine vineyards in an area where all the factors that the vines will need are present, and to choose a suitable variety for your climate.