Notes From The Phantom Wine-O
Most fine wines are grown in poor soils and at the edges of agricultural production. It has been conventional wisdom that vines need to be stressed and yields kept low to make good wine. And there are reasons for this thinking.
In the beginnings of efficient agricultural practices the best, most arable, easily-tilled land would usually be reserved for row crops to feed the population. And wine, while certainly a necessity (to some of us), and a valuable addition to our quality of life, was relegated to less fertile land. Over the centuries methods were developed and refined and it became the common practice to grow grapes in marginal areas.
It is only recently, and not without some controversy, that some have begun to say that high quality grapes for wine can indeed be grown in more fertile areas. More fertile soils will increase the density of the vines themselves by adding more leaves, and these leaves will need more elaborate trellises to prevent shading of the fruit and maintain airflow. There will need to be more spacing between rows and between the vines themselves. But if the vines are balanced, there is no reason that great, and much higher production wines are not a possibility in the future.
photo credit: John-Morgan
