In cold areas there is an abhorrent (but very necessary) practice called “replacement viticulture” in recognition that vines and/or their parts come and go and that the ability of the grower to replace them will determine the economic success of the vineyard. Needless to say, outstanding viticulture will help all aspects of fruit quality and vine survival. If it is accepted that vine and vineyard uniformity is an important contributor to wine quality, then replacement viticulture is not the route to fine wine but rather a reality of winegrowing in the cold.

Synchronicity is another virtuous feature of wine quality, and that, too, is difficult to achieve in a vineyard with vines and parts of vines with different sizes, shapes, ages, etc. In general, try as much as possible to have a normal vineyard (see warmer regions). Vineyards on Long Island or the Niagara Peninsula are good examples of what winegrowers should strive to achieve. Visit and examine their design and maintenance features closely to understand what makes them successful. Avoid injury to the vine from grape hoes, string trimmers, large pruning wounds, etc., because they create portals for opportunistic bad guys such as crown gall.

Even if I dislike replacement viticulture, I accept its necessity. The goal of every vineyard is to be sustainable, which includes profitability. Any open wire (i.e., missing vine or part(s) of a vine) detracts from a vineyard’s ability to be profitable. A management strategy must include how to keep the trellis as full as possible. Growers should have a good program for replants, which are neither easy to install nor to cultivate. For example, how will you maintain adequate weed control in a vineyard with numerous replants?

Many cold-climate growers have a regular program of replacing trunks, as they get beat up over the years. No one seems to know what impact this practice has on wine quality. If we believe that vine age has an impact on quality, what effect does the combination of older roots and renewed trunks have on the physiology of the vine and grape quality?

Do smaller vines mean earlier maturity?
Part of the reason for trying to create a smaller vine is to limit yield per vine, which, in theory at least, should help to promote earlier fruit maturity and help the vine’s acclimation process. In many red wine vineyards I have seen the higher density vines ripening earlier than their wider spaced neighbors. The sooner the fruit is harvested, the sooner a vine can get on with the business of cold acclimation. This is one of the few win-win situations in viticulture.

Regardless of vine density and size, growers should strive to create a balanced vine and not to over-crop their vines, which surely can compromise their ability to overwinter. Proper yields are unique to each vineyard, and even to blocks or sections within a vineyard, so only you can determine what the proper crop load should be. This must be done through yield trials that involve winemaking to see what level makes the best wine and ideal vine balance (hopefully they are the same.)

Canopy management is invariably complicated by replacement viticulture, especially if extra parts are involved such as replacement spurs and/or canes. They can crowd a finely balanced canopy and exacerbate shading issues, which in turn can hamper disease management and fruit ripening. The grower just has to manage this situation the best he can given the severity of the injury situation. There is certainly no prescription for this.

The canopy is vitally important for wine quality and vine health. Ideally, a mild water stress is placed on the vine before veraison, and the vine’s attention is directed to fruit maturity and away from producing more leaves. This is where soil plays such a critical role in post-veraison viticulture.

As new hybrid varieties come out of research programs and the barns of innovative growers there is a lag in vineyard design and management knowledge. For example, what is the best vine density and spacing, trellis and training system, yields, methods of canopy management, disease and pest management strategies, etc? A lot of what growers are doing now is based on intuition and tradition, which often works fine but may not offer the optimal design and management systems.

Tremendous variability for winemakers
Finally, winemaking is more challenging and important to making high-quality wines in cool and cold areas where grape quality will have tremendous variability from one vintage to the next (or even within a vintage.) Getting balanced wines from grapes with high acidity, insufficient body, off-flavors, disease or all of the above makes winemaking a critical part of the production process. Proper extraction is necessary to elevate the mid-palate, particularly for red wines, and tools such as concentrators and rotary fermentors, if skillfully used, can help to improve the quality of substandard fruit.

Blending is another excellent tool for the winemaker to make both red and white wines better. Using warm-climate “sunny” fruit/juice/wine as a blending tool to improve wine within legal limits is another option. The quality of wine is indeed determined in the vineyard, but this can be good or poor quality. Often it is the creativity and knowledge of the winemaker that matters the most in fashioning a palatable wine in a difficult vintage. White wines require the preservation of freshness and acidity, also in balance, to produce the attractive aromatic qualities that consumers expect from varieties like Riesling and Vidal.

I have often said that the Eastern U.S. is the most challenging fine wine area in the world due to the combined threats of winter injury, fall hurricanes, low-pressure systems and warm, humid summers. As conditions get cooler, viticulture and winemaking become more difficult, and with this come additional costs. I know from experience that the most expensive and least rewarding vintages are the cool and wet ones, where every task in the vineyard is a struggle and wine quality is often compromised. The occasional winter event can lead to varying degrees of vine loss resulting in lower production.

It’s all a tremendous gamble and not for the faint of heart or wallet. The vineyard and/or winery owner has to stare these risks squarely in the face and say, “I can take it.” If you cannot, then my completely sincere suggestion is to use the money you would otherwise spend on the vineyard battlefield in a fine wine shop and other favorite pastimes, although none will be as thrilling as the annual vintage game we play.

Mark L. Chien is statewide viticulture extension educator for the Penn State Cooperative Extension based in Lancaster, Pa.