Stillness of Winter

The vineyards look silent and still as they lay under their blankets of snow around this time of year.

But did you know this is very important in the production of high quality grapes? Only high quality grapes can make great wine.

The production of grapes on the vine follows a strict seasonal process. The first buds appear in the spring, the grapes grow during the summer and ripe grapes are then harvested in the autumn. In winter the vines are in repose, resting from their endeavours over the year. The only work that is done to the vines (although it’s very important) is the pruning. All the dead wood and foliage from the previous harvest is pruned away such that to the untrained eye apparently very little of the vine is left at all!

But what happens when the vine doesn’t get any time to repose? In tropical regions (in other words the parts of the globe nearest to the equator) the warmth will convince the vines to start the process of producing new grapes immediately on completion of the previous harvest. It is possible in the tropics that the vines can produce two harvests! The vines get no repose and the resulting grapes produce very unappetizing, flavourless wine.

It is for this reason wine grape producing vines can only be produced in two global bands, too near the equator and the vines get stressed, too near the polar regions the grapes do not ripen at all due to lack of warmth and sun. The two bands run approximately between 30 degrees and 50 degrees latitude, North and South but altitude of the vineyard, land mass and phenomena such as the Gulf Stream can play a part in variation to these boundaries.

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