Overview
This project was designed to examine the effect of shoot thinning and regulated deficit irrigation (RDI) on Chardonnay in the Santa Maria valley. We expected to develop insight by monitoring the maturation of the fruit and finally making and evaluating wine derived from these clusters.
Results
Perhaps because of a possible stylet oil (a biodegradable fungicide and insecticide) application issue, the un-thinned rows were lost to excessive botrytis and not picked. The lab reported an unexplained spike in tartaric acid levels at the end of August. Fruit from shoot-thinned rows (RDI and normal irrigation) were combined on September 15, pressing in the winery yielded 179 gallons of juice. The initial lab results are promising: 25.4 Brix, 3.30 pH, 7.54 g/L TA, 304 mg/L YAN.
For July and August, the RDI rows were maintained at approximately 80% and 90% of the 40 cm and 80 cm volumetric moisture levels respectively of normal vineyard irrigation.
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
Data and Content distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.
Cord Phelps // github