Grape Planting for Great Wine

The quality of the grapes you put into wine are the greatest determinant of the quality of the wine produced. In other words, doing a great job of growing your grapes is the key to producing great wine.

It All Starts With Location

The first step to grape planting is planning. The most important planning step for growing good grapes is choosing the right location. One of the keys to a good location is plenty of sunlight, spread equally across the grapevine. This allows your grapes to fill up with natural sugars, which will be necessary for the production of alcohol during fermentation.

Choosing good soil is another important aspect of location selection. Your soil should not have sitting water. So your soil should drain very well. It is important to dig your planting holes deep so that the soil can be loosened for good drainage. Also, avoid the common mistake of enriching your soil. You shouldn’t use fertilizers at all, as these will only help the weeds. Compost should be used only when even weeds don’t grow in the soil. Wine grapes need to be small, so it is important to keep soil nutrients to a minimum.

Your vines should be planted at least 6 feet apart. If you intend to have a large vineyard, 8 feet apart is even better. If you do your grape planting properly, one healthy grapevine should be able to produce a gallon of wine. But, even if you do everything right there is the chance of losing part of your grape crop to disease, insects, and birds. This is a good reason to do more grape planting than seems necessary.

Growing Your Grapes

Of course, grape clusters are very heavy and hang from vines. So these vines are going to need to have a trellis to grow around and use for support. During the first year of growth you will need to choose the strongest shoot from each vine to tie to the trellis for direction and support. String or another soft material is a better choice than wire for tying, as wire can damage the shoot. The weaker shoots should be clipped. During dormant growth periods, you will need to prune the vines as well. When the vines start growing again, usually during the spring, choose the strongest new vines out of the shoot to gently tie to the wires. These will be the vines that hold the grape clusters that will be used to make wine.

Harvesting Your Grapes

A hydrometer can help you with harvest time. A wine making store will carry a hydrometer. It is used to test the gravity levels of a liquid. The basic idea is that you want to check for the proper sugar content in your grapes before harvesting them. Typically, a gravity of up to 1.105 is ideal, though it can be as low as 1.095 and still be fine for harvesting.
It may take years for your grape planting efforts to pay off, but it will be worth your time when it does.