Unconventional cultivation of grapes for juice and distilled/rebate wine

Abstract

The successful establishment of commercial vineyards requires high capital inputs. Together with annual production costs, profitable production of grapes for the production of juice, distilled and rebate wine is nearly impossible, even in traditional high production regions of South Africa. An investigation was done to determine if unconventional cultivation of grapes could realize a low ‘establishment and production cost : income’ ratio. An unconventional vineyard was established in the Lower Orange River Region (Upington) of South Africa, using cuttings of Chenin blanc, Palomino, Chenel, Cereza, Viura, Villard blanc and Colombar. The soil was cross ripped to 60 cm and cuttings were planted 20 cm deep and 15 cm apart with 1 m between rows. Approximately two thirds of the vines were removed to achieve a final vine spacing of ±45 cm. Vines were spur pruned with approximately eight 2-bud spurs/m cordon length and trained onto a 60 cm high 3-Wire Hedge trellis with one set of moveable foliage wires.  During the first growth season vines developed without manipulation and a good survival rate was recorded for all cultivars. However, large differences in vegetative growth were recorded for the different cultivars at the end of the first growth season. Two years after planting, yields were related to the extent of vegetative growth during the first season and only a production of 13 t/ha of Villard blanc was significant. Good yields were recorded for Villard blanc throughout the investigation and an enormous yield of 49.5 t/ha was recorded during the 2010/11 season. Low total yields were recorded for Chenel and Cereza while average yields were recorded for Chenin blanc, Palomino, Viura and Colombar throughout the investigation. Cane mass of Villard blanc was comparable to that of Chenin blanc and Colombar, despite its total yield of nearly double that of these two cultivars.