Irrigate or not: that's the question

Does irrigating produce a vine of lesser quality? Does it make a better or worse wine? I would like to hear your opinion on that question.

Conventional wisdom has it that the more you stress the vine the better the wine. Obviously you don't want it to dry up and blow away, so if things are getting that bad you may want to water it. Many vineyards use drip irrigation.

Does irrigating produce a vine of lesser quality? Does it make a better or worse wine? I would like to hear your opinion on that question.

Randall Grahm suggests that drip irrigation undermines the benefits of terroir in his Phenomenology of Terroir to which I just recently posted a link in another thread. To wit:

Note: the pernicious practice of drip irrigation, as it is routinely practiced here in California, essentially infantilizes plants, turning them into pure sterile, consumers as if they were grown in flower-pots, making them gatherers rather than hunters, the viticultural equivalents of Chauncey Gardner, if you remember Peter Sellers in “Being There.” Needless to say, this essentially negates the possibility of the expression of terroir.

But, I suppose, it is like with any other plant which throws a tap or deep root. If you do not irrigate deeply enough, then the plant develops surface roots which are subject to being dried out in periods of drought etc. Conventional wisdom: Irrigate until the plant is established and then let it do its thing.

By the way, the only grapevines I've ever grown were in pots, but my lawns and other plants have always expressed hyper-green-thumbedness.

I like the differences in vintage that unpredictable weather conditions produce. I certainly don't want the "safe, consistent wine" that some new world producers would like to make year after year. On the other hand, Austrian winemakers are well known to use irrigation and I don't think the wines lack terroir in the least bit. The beauty is that some sites retain water well (and are supplied by underground streams) which is advantageous in dry vintages, and some shed water well and don't suffer from rainy harvests as much. This is very evident in the Mosel and Rhein river valleys in Germany. Is irrigation cheating? Perhaps certain places are meant for spectacular wines in certain years and others aren't. In America, the idea of Royal Blood (or Grand Cru by the grace of God) is rather foreign to us. We are a nation of the self made man. If a vineyard doesn’t have the right exposure, we'll move earth so it does. If it doesn't get the desired rainfall, we'll control stress by drip irrigation. If specific air-borne yeast strains aren't available in our vineyards, we'll introduce them to our wines. Before technology, good or great wine was a product of its natural environment (and much of it may have been terrible-I am certain that many ‘better’ wines are available to us now). In the least, it was much easier to price fairly (I don’t like paying high prices for heavily manipulated wine). Personally, I like the romantic notion of naturally produced or ‘minimalist intervention’. But perhaps everyone is entitled to make good wines wherever they are. That's for you and your bank account to decide.



Prost!
Bill

In America, the idea of Royal Blood (or Grand Cru by the grace of God) is rather foreign to us. We are a nation of the self made man. If a vineyard doesn’t have the right exposure, we'll move earth so it does. If it doesn't get the desired rainfall, we'll control stress by drip irrigation. If specific air-borne yeast strains aren't available in our vineyards, we'll introduce them to our wines.

Nicely put, Bill. I agree wholeheartedly with this statement.

I think that this innovative spirit, this "can do" attitude, rather than resignation to things as they may be, has a lot going for it. It's the ability to dare to dream about that which has yet to exist. It's very much the "build it and they will come" approach - and I like it.

So much of cold-climate/continental viticulture (sometimes referred to as "the new American viticulture" in circles that champion advancements in disease-resistant, cold-hardy vines) is based on the "can do" attitude, as indeed it must be, since looking at what simply exists already, the belief that there is nothing more that can be done and that there is no hope for viticulture in the Heartland might be the "logical" result. I think that as with many other areas of innovation, continental-climate viticulture is benefitting in North America from this drive toward finding solutions and not conceding defeat to antiquated strictures.

Terroir is no doubt something that should be studied and acknowledged with respect to all wines, but personally I have never aspired to allocate a hierarchical, deterministic role to terroir.

Does irrigating produce a vine of lesser quality?

That really depends. A vine needs a minimum amount of water to survive and be healthy. I do not have the numbers with me but for some reason it seems like it is 22" of rain per year on average. That seems high as I type it so it is probably less. Lots of growing regions do not get that much rain on average per year (some as low as 12") so to grow a quality vine in an area that does not get enough rain you will have to irrigate.

Other areas of the world such as where I live get substantially more water than required (43" a year for me). I have no need to irrigate except for the initial period after planting. However, with the more rain comes a greater risk of disease and rot which weakening vines and impacting fruit quality.

Does it make a better or worse wine?

Again that depends. If I need to irrigate to provide minimum water requirements, I have less variables to consider when selecting what to plant. If I have a situation where I have substantially more rain than required to sustain normal growth than I have to considers disease and rot resistance of the grapes and may not be able to grow certain varieties. For example Zinfandel is not an option for me as it potential for rot is way too high although in every other way it would seem to be a natural for my conditions. This is due to Zinfandel being a very thin skin grape that grows in tight bunches and rots from the inside out with too much moisture. Look at grape growing regions that have high average rainfall and see what they are growing. You will generally find that the grapes being used are not those considered the great wine grapes. Those that force these grapes into these conditions usually can not duplicate the quality of the drier growing regions.

The above is based upon growing in areas where irrigation is required versus where it is not and in that case I would always prefer to have to add water than to have nature give me too much. It is always easier to grow a quality vine and make better wine the more control you have over the product. Sunlight gets controlled with leaf pulling. Green harvests help control grape production to keep proper leaf/fruit balance. Dormant prunning and trellising systems are all ways to control the impacts of the enviornment (wind. sun again, fruit quantity again). In my opinition Irrigation is just another means to extract the most out of what you have to work.

Does irrigating produce a vine of lesser quality? Does it make a better or worse wine? I would like to hear your opinion on that question.

As others have said, it depends. Don't think there is a blanket answer for any agricultural situation.

Does irrigating produce a vine of lesser quality? Does it make a better or worse wine?

It all depends why the vine is being irrigated. Irrigation is not allowed under in many French AC areas, but these are temperate areas where there is normally enough rain. And some growers just produced as much as possible, -- guaranteed payment from the co-operative or under intervention -- and irrigation would produce even more watery poor wine.

But in other parts of the world vines could not survive without irrigation, and yet some farmers use underground sensors to judge when to water and use as little as possible in order to get quality grapes.

I was brought up in the French wine tradition so it was a shock to me when I first saw irrigation of wine vines, but it is necessary in many places and what matters is the quality of the wine. Irrigation is just one of the many tools in a wine farmers work box.