Often, people ponder over the “secret” to making a great wine.
In fact, there is no “one” thing that determines a wine’s
quality or taste. Winemaking involves hundreds of decisions
before the grapes even start to ferment! The way a vine is
pruned, when grapes are harvested, and so on, play crucial roles
in the wine ultimately bottled. We won’t get too deep into
viticulture in this post, but the way a winemaker prunes her
vines affects the yield and vigor of a plant, which is linked to
the concentration of flavor in the grapes. (The more “vigorous”
the vine, generally the more grapes it produces, the more grapes
it produces, the less concentrated the flavor in each grape, the
less concentrated the flavor in each grape, the less
concentrated the flavor of the wine.) A winemaker or vineyard
manager also manages the vine canopy (grape leaves) throughout
the harvest, to allow for more, or less photosynthesis.
Photosynthesis is directly responsible for a vine’s vigor (e.g.
the quantity of grapes the vine produces).