How to Make Great Pinot Noir - Growing the Grapes

In this article, Wim Julicher details how he manages his vineyard to achieve the optimum Pinot Noir grape. 

Te Muna Road near Martinborough is ideally suited for grape growing. The soil profile in this area of silt loam soils with free draining alluvial gravels are the prerequisites for producing premium quality, healthy grape vines.  The climate is cool with summer days rarely exceeding 30⁰c. This allows the grapes to ripen very slowly and to develop powerful fruit characters with finely textured tannins. Cool nights and low rainfall (average 650mm per annum) also help provide the optimum flavour development.

A variety of Pinot Noir clones have been planted to capture the different characteristics each clone produces. The main clones are: Clone 5, 6, 667, 777, 114, 115 and Abel, all grafted on rootstock most suited to the Te Muna soils. Plant spacing is of medium density, 3 to 3.5 thousand vines per hectare which provides significant quality benefits. The trellis system is vertical shoot positioning to maximize sunlight and air movement through the vines. This is why leaf plucking is also necessary.

Irrigation is necessary to establish the vines in the early stages. Fortunately our vineyard has access to sufficient water supplies. As the vines are maturing, less water is needed. Soil moisture monitoring is in place to ensure that no water is wasted. About two months before harvest, irrigation is discontinued to promote flavour development and avoid excess water in the grapes.

Martinborough is prone to heavy frosts, so during spring when the young buds are forming, grapegrowers in the area need to be extremely vigilant with frost protection. At Julicher, we use 3 wind machines which push the warmer inversion layer of air down onto the vines to stop the frost from settling. Sometimes we can be up all night, several times in a week monitoring the temperatures and making sure that the machines are working.

Pruning and leaf plucking are done by hand; also shoot thinning which is necessary to control cropping levels. Vineyard staff remove late set and excess bunches by hand to avoid disease development. Cropping levels for the Pinot Noir are usually between 4 and 6 tonnes per hectare depending on clone, and weather conditions also play a big role. These factors make it an expensive grape to produce because of the man hours required. In 2010, the unusually late frosts and cold and wet weather at flowering time reduced the crop levels to less than 4 tonnes per hectare.