“Wine gives a man nothing…it only puts in motion what
had been locked up in frost.” - Samuel Johnson
Happy New Year, everyone. I hope the coming year brings you joy and peace. This is a good time to reflect upon the last year for VS14, our Chardonnay that we are following. In reflection, we shall discuss the vineyard block where the grapes came from.
In 2007, Hess Collections’ viticulturist Sander Scheer, had a soil map of our Veeder Summit vineyards performed. They used soil resistivity results and GPS coordinates overlaid on a map of the site. The company, Coastal Viticultural Consultants, has a device that they drag along the surface of the soil which measures the electrical resistance of the soil which can determine what kind of soil is present at the site. Additionally, they dig a test pit to look at the soil strata which allows us to look at the underlying soil conditions of a vineyard block. We then compare that to the condition of the grapes that are grown there. The long term goal is to match the root stock planted to match the sites soil conditions. Not only in a vineyard block but possibly vine to vine. This way the larger portions of a block will ripen uniformly.
Soil Resistivey Map
The interesting result from this survey for block VS14 is that there are two different soil-type bands that run through it. The northern band is clay while the southern band, is common gravel. These bands divide the block, almost exactly, between the long rows and the short rows of planted vines. What we have noticed that within this acre of vineyard block the south corner of the long rows there are some vines that ripen later than the rest of the long row which can be a problem at harvest time. However, now that we have had the soil tested we can now determine what rootstock would match the soil which would help the grapes mature at the same time.
Almost all modern vineyards are planted with vines as a graft. This graft is made between the rootstock and the fruiting portion of the vine, usually French varietals. The rootstock is grown from seed, pollinated from a grapevine with a specific characteristic that you would like in the final plant. For instance: disease resistance, draught tolerance, ease of grafting and nutritional requirements. 3309, is a cross between V. riparia and V. rupestris. V. riparia is a grape vine that grows along the banks of rivers, while V. rupestris grows in sandy soil. There is a good likelihood, that the difference between the short and long rows of VS14 can be attributed to the rootstock. V. riparia which grows along riverbanks would grow better under soil conditions of the long rows. The clay soil structure would cause water to remain near the surface, while V. riparia has a shallower root system. This would be a good match; as opposed to common gravel soil, where the water and nutrient availability would be deeper. 3309 would be less of a match for this soil type.
