Unit 19 of 26 · Online wine course

In the Vineyard: How Wine Grapes Are Grown

How the grapes are grown. 9 lessons · about 72 min

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The 9 lessons

  1. The vine's year, from bud to harvest

    A grapevine repeats the same six stages every year, from budburst to winter sleep, and where it is in that cycle decides what the grower is doing.

    You will be able to:

    • name the six stages of a vine's year in order
    • explain why flowering decides the size of the crop
    • read the season in a vineyard, north or south
    about 8 min

  2. Why most vines are two plants

    Most vines are a European variety grafted onto American roots: why those roots survive a root-eating insect, how grafting works and how growers pick one.

    You will be able to:

    • explain why most vines are two grafted plants
    • describe how American roots survive phylloxera
    • name what growers weigh when choosing a rootstock
    about 8 min

  3. Winter pruning: the most important cut

    Pruning in the dormant season sets how much fruit the vine will carry, and it is the single biggest yield decision a grower makes.

    You will be able to:

    • explain why growers cut away most of last year's growth
    • describe how counting buds roughly sets next year's crop
    • tell spur pruning from cane pruning, including Guyot
    about 8 min

  4. Canopy management: the grower's summer job

    How growers thin, tuck, pluck and trim a vine's leaves in summer to control the sun and air its grapes get, shaping both ripeness and disease risk.

    You will be able to:

    • explain how leaves and sunlight make the sugar in grapes
    • describe the four summer jobs that shape a canopy
    • compare canopy choices in cool and hot regions
    about 8 min

  5. How vines are trained and spaced

    The frame a vine grows on and the gap between vines are chosen at planting and kept for decades. They shape ripening, competition and how the vineyard is worked.

    You will be able to:

    • explain what a vine's training system is and does
    • match vine shapes to the climates that suit them
    • compare close and wide spacing using vines per hectare
    about 8 min

  6. Mildew, rot and the vineyard's real enemies

    Two mildews from America are the grower's yearly fight, and one mould can ruin or make a wine. Meet the diseases, the old cures and the new grapes.

    You will be able to:

    • tell powdery mildew and downy mildew apart
    • explain when botrytis becomes grey rot or noble rot
    • explain why wet climates need the most spraying
    about 8 min

  7. Frost, hail and heat: one bad night can take a harvest

    Why a single frosty night, hailstorm or heatwave can wipe out a year's crop, and the surprising ways growers fight back: fans, fires, ice and nets.

    You will be able to:

    • explain why frost is most dangerous after budburst
    • describe how growers fight and dodge spring frost
    • recognise what hail and extreme heat do to grapes
    about 8 min

  8. Choosing the day to pick

    Why harvest day is the grower's hardest call: sugar, acidity and flavour ripen on different clocks, and the weather never waits.

    You will be able to:

    • explain why sugar, acidity and flavour rarely peak together
    • describe how growers measure and taste ripeness
    • predict how picking early or late shapes a wine
    about 8 min

  9. Hand-picking or machine harvesting

    How grapes come off the vine: machines are fast and cheap, hands are gentle and choosy, and some wines, slopes and rules leave no choice.

    You will be able to:

    • explain how a harvesting machine picks grapes
    • compare hand-picking and machine harvesting for quality and cost
    • recognise when rules or slopes demand picking by hand
    about 8 min

Related reading on Winelingo: How Wine Is Made, From Vine to Bottle