Steve Matthiasson on Viticulture in Napa Valley

Описание: Learn about Napa Valley viticulture with this http://aroundtheworldin80harvests.com/ interview with viticulture consultant and winemaker Steve Matthiasson. Amanda Barnes interviews him on the best vineyard management, canopies and vineyard training for Napa Valley's climate. Check out the full interview on http://aroundtheworldin80harvests.com/

Amanda Barnes: So Steve, we are in one of your vineyards in Napa, and you have been working with lots of different viticultural techniques and management over the years. VSP, is it a friend or a foe for Napa?

Steve Matthiasson: Boy, foe! Because great wines, there's plenty of great wines from VSP but we are always trying to do better and deal with the challenges. The advantage of VSP is that it gathers light, so when Napa was replanted after phylloxera in the 90s, late 80s, early 90s, we went to alot of VSP because there was a lot of research in other grape growing parts of the world - mainly Europe and the northern half of Europe - that VSP was making better wine. And in all these regions people loved, really did well with VSP. So we planted a bunch of VSP and we learned that it gathers too much light for us. And we learned that, before we had very shaded canopies, we went from a little bit is good, a lot is better is not necessarily the rule for viticulture. It is always balance. Just like wines, every thing has to have balance. We are looking for balanced light, balanced vines, balanced everything. And so we swung all the way to there. And so now the, sort of, thinking is that we need to put cross arms on our VSP and try to get more diffuse light, but some shading, or in our rows so that the sun comes down over the top on the hottest part of the day, it doesn't hit it from the side. There are some of the early wines, you thought you wanted the sun to hit it from the side, and it was just too much sun on the fruit. So we've sort of gotten away from that now. And kind of going back to the older idea of protecting them from the sun, but just not as much as we used to.

Amanda Barnes: Super. So you are going back to the old way? You are actually starting to plant your first parral again? And you are going to a bit more California sprawl. What is California sprawl for someone that doesn't know?

Steve Matthiasson: So the old California sprawl was that all the shoots just flopped down on both sides, and so the vines looked like - if you remember the Snuffleupagus from Sesame Street? That's what the vines looked like, just all flopped down to the sides. And that's the California Sprawl. The California Sprawl does not work when the vines are too vigorous because what happens is that the canes all fall down on each other and build these matts, and no light penetrates. But with balanced vigour, which we achieve with cover cropping or the rootstock or the right site, the California Sprawl, if the shoots can come up and kind of stay somewhat upright and just somewhat come over, but light can get through there, then it is phenomenal, and that's really our goal that we try to achieve with all the trellising that we are working on now is to try to achieve all that filtered light. That is perfect in a naturally balanced California Sprawl vineyard.