Growing better pinot noir – Introduction

• Introduction
• Background
• Study Design
• Data Collection
• Analysis
• Data
• Glossary

Pinot noir is one of the oldest grapes grown for making wine. A good bottle of pinot noir can be difficult to produce. The grape vine is susceptible to frost, viruses and birds. The wine can ferment violently and uncontrollably in production, and the flavour depends on the “flavour of the soil”. Vincent was interested in using environmentally friendly treatments of the soil under pinot noir vines. He compared a standard herbicide with two greener alternatives: straw mulch and compost.

The key question Vincent wanted to answer was:

• Did the under vine treatment influence the vine yield and wine quality?

Timeline

2000	Autumn	Study design
	Winter	Under vine treatments applied. Data collection commences.
	Spring
	Summer
2001	Autumn	First grape harvest after treatment.
	Winter	First pruning after treatment.
	Spring	First treatment top up; vine growth monitored.
	Summer	First soil & leaf stalk samples collected.
2002	Autumn	Second grape harvest after treatment.
	Winter	Data analysis commences; second pruning after treatment.
	Spring	Vine growth monitored.
	Summer	Second soil & leaf stalk samples collected.
2003	Autumn	Third grape harvest after treatment.
	Winter	Third pruning after treatment; field trial ends.

Hear from Vincent about standard practices

Click the play button to hear about standard practice.