Viticulture

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Lots of students ask me this question, What is viticulture? So i decided to write on it…

Viticulture ( Derived Latin word for vine) is the science, production and study of grapes which deals with the series of events that occur in the vineyard. When the grapes are used forwinemaking, it is also known as viniculture. It is one branch of the science of horticulture.History of viticulture is closely related to the history of wine with evidence of man cultivating wild grapes to make wine

Viticulture Aspects affecting wine production

Natural factors make wine from a particular region unique, known in the wine industry as terroir, these factors include local climate (temperature, rainfall, and sunlight), location of grapevines (altitude and slope) and soil (structure, composition, and water drainage). In general, a grapevine produces the best fruit when the moderate climate provides much sunshine and cool nights without frost or hailstorms and the soil is well drained. Grapevines grow best in sandy, chalky, or rocky soils.
 A wine’s character is strongly affected by vine growing, or viticultural practices such as training, trellising, harvesting, and pruning. Training and trellising enable the viticulturalist to control the sun exposure to ensure the grapes ripen evenly. Grapes harvested when they are not ripe may be low in sugar and may not ferment properly. Overly ripe grapes have very high sugar content and produce wine high in alcohol. Tropical vines do not show high dormant, the viticulturalist prunes the vines twice a year. First pruning is carried out during first fortnight of April every year to induce vegetative growth and in this phase fruit bud formations occur in mature canes. The second pruning of matured canes is done during late September or early October to obtain fruits. As most of the wine varieties have basal fruitfulness of the canes, pruning level is normally kept low between 4-7 buds from the base depending upon varieties. Pruning enables the grower to control the size and shape of the vines, as well as the number of buds that will develop the next year. Too many buds on a vine may stress nutrient availability, reducing the quality of the future harvest.
 Grapevines have many natural enemies: insects, molds, bacteria, fungi, viruses and animals such as birds that eat the sweet grapes. Certain soil-borne pests, such as nematodes, phylloxera(wasp), phytophthora (fungus) etc may destroy the roots of grapevines. To counter this problem, vineyards use the rootstocks from resistant American vines .(Vitis champini, V.riparia, V.berlandieri, V.rupestris and their interspecific hybrids etc.) and the scion cultivars from European species (V. vinifera).

Climate & Soil

Overall performance in terms of growth, yield and quality of grapes for wine making is greatly influenced by climate & soils.
I . Climate –
It is the summation of weather conditions throughout the year.
                    Factors : i) Temperature
                                   ii)   Solar radiation, sunshine hours
                                   iii) Rainfall, Relative humidity
                                   iv) Wind, Evaporation etc.
Vitis vinifera grape varieties grow under wide range of climatic   conditions.

If you like what i am writing let me know… next part of this will be posted soon Kunal