Making of Vines
Just like farming , method were created to cultivate grapes to ensure repeated harvest , high yield and greater quality.
There were many difficulties faced in cultivating vines as first of all, wild vines are dioecious ( a plant only have either female flower or male ). This means that in a vineyard about half of the vines could not bear any fruits since they are male.
However, a dioecious plant means that genes are being traded with one another improving their traits. This promotes natural selection which lead to yields having a higher resistance to diseases.
A good write-up on how vines are cultivated could be found over here.
Who Cultivate Vines first ?
The first cultivation of vines may be found at Fertile Crescent as they had right grapes for making vine. There are also many evidences found which lead to historians to believe that wine is first being made in that location. Examples are large amount of earthenware jars that is used to hold wines and evidence of royal wine cellars found there.
The Process
Conditions Idea for Vines
- Cold winter will allow the vine to hibernate and store strength for the following year’s fruit
- A long summer with random rainfall so that the grape will ripe evenly and slowly
- A dry autumn during harvest else if the grapes take in too much water, the juice will be diluted and it will lose its ripe flavour
Cultivating
In cool countries where there is not much sun, vines are grown on slope facing south so as to further trap sunlight. The vines are pruned daily so as to increase its exposure to sunlight. Some low lying bush vine gain heat which is reflected from the soil which help the grape to ripe. Fertile soil is not welcome by vine growers as it produces too much green leaves cover the vine exposure to sunlight. Vines are grown in poor quality soil at all times so as to allow the vine to produce better fruits.
Harvesting
Though machine is commonly used today, they are only ideal for flat lands. Hand-picking is still done especially if vines are grown on the slope and rocky terrain. In some top vineyard , workers may select only grapes that are perfectly riped.