Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Walla Walla Valley AVA
By: Becky Garrison Since the formation of the Walla Walla Valley AVA in 1984, this oasis, set amid a vast sagebrush desert that rolls across Southeast Washington and Northeast Oregon, has emerged as a destination hub for wine connoisseurs. At present, the Walla Walla Valley AVA includes 135 wineries producing ...
The Best Options for De-Leafers, Tillers, Sprayers, Mowers & Shredders
By: Alyssa L. Ochs Various tools and pieces of equipment are essential to smoothly operating a vineyard. Yet the versions of these products you choose could significantly impact your labor expenditures and a successful harvest. This article highlights several specific pieces of vineyard equipment: de-leafers, tillers, sprayers, mowers and shredders ...
Add Efficiency and Cost Effectiveness to Your Vineyard Pruning Program
By: Gerald Dlubala Vineyard pruning is sometimes approached with a different passion than harvest, but it's no less critical and can have a noticeable effect on the following year's harvest. Proper pruning encourages robust vine growth and enriches the health of the vine and fruiting grapes. A well-pruned and maintained ...
Common Trellis Systems and Choosing the Right One
Photo Credit: Jensen Precast By: Alyssa L. Ochs In the modern vineyard, trellis systems consist of posts, wires or other structures used to support grapevines and help them grow. The concept of a trellis is relatively simple, but choosing the right one could mean the difference between a successful harvest ...
Managing pH in Wine
By: Thomas J. Payette, Winemaking Consultant In a recent symposium the speaker stood at the podium. He started his talk saying “If stranded on a deserted island and the island happened to have grapes planted on it, and he were only allowed just three things he thought he could make ...
If This Was Easy, Everyone Would Do It.
By: Susan DeMatei, founder of WineGlass Marketing Setting expectations is difficult. After all, we all want perfection and success, so isn’t it just positive thinking to predict that your campaigns will be victorious? That’s what “The Secret” tells us, anyway. But while it can’t hurt to take a stab at ...
Practical Viticulture: Vine Shelter Types Provide Differences in a Vine’s Growing Environment
Five vine shelter types currently being investigated by Texas A&M for their impact on vegetative growth and winter injury potential By: Patrick O' Brien, Ph.D and Michael Cook - Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service The first few seasons in the vineyard immediately following planting are key growth stages and can ...
How does Grape Crop Insurance Work
By: Trevor Troyer - Agricultural Risk Management, LLC Grape crop insurance is an Actual Production History (APH) policy. This means it uses a vineyard’s historical production to determine how much is covered. You are covering an average of your tons per variety. Since crop insurance is subsidized the insurable varieties, ...
Grapevine Leafroll & Red Blotch Virus Disease Management and Control
By: Judit Monis, Ph.D. - Vineyard and Plant Health Consultant The symptoms of virus infection become more pronounced in the vineyards in the late summer and fall season. Specially leafroll and red blotch, the most important viral diseases that manifest in red-fruited grape varieties. Often, it is difficult to distinguish ...
The Contract Packaging Agreement
By: Brad Berkman and Louis Terminello, Greenspoon Marder A few times on these pages, we’ve written about contracts of various types to assist brand owners in proper planning for brand manufacture, introduction and distribution. In this article, we’ll take something of a deeper dive into production agreements in a contract ...
