Are you organic?  We tried.

We are big believers that good wine comes from healthy soils and healthy plants.  It is a guiding principle for how we manage our vineyard.  Many years ago we decided to give going organic a try.  The only significant change we had to make was to stop using herbicides on grass and weeds under the vines.  Many of the other issues could be managed by intensive canopy management.

So began a three-year trial of using alternative grass and weed control measures.  Winter was easy.  We could run sheep in the vineyard.  But they had to be out before bud burst in Spring.  Spring was the challenging time.  Grass and weeds grow prolifically and can overwhelm the grape vines.  We could not use a surface plough as some vineyards do.  We have way too many rocks.  So, our first investment was in a new attachment for our tractor that was meant to work like a vertical weedeater – it would bounce off the vine trunks and cut the grass and weeds.  It took care of the grass and weeds, but unfortunately it also took the bark off the vine trunks, or occasionally just knocked them over.

The next step was an undervine mower.  Not quite as good at getting the grass right under the vines, but with Mike driving slowly and carefully, not as much damage to the vines.  That meant that the remaining grass had to be dealt with using a weedeater (or strimmer or weed wacker depending on where you grew up).  So for the next few years much time was spent on the weedeater.  Generally good for the grass, and only the occasional plant that got ring barked when the weedeater bumped off a rock.  Not quite so good for the wrists.

What was the result?  After three years, our canopy had reduced to a third of the height we needed to ripen the fruit, particularly in our Pinot Gris.  As a result, we had to drop a lot of fruit to ensure that what we did have ripened.  Our crop dropped to a third.  A sad looking vineyard and a sad looking bank account.  We had to acknowledge that our low vigour vineyard was just not going to cope with going totally organic.