Sometimes you just have to try something different, stretch the envelope, take a chance. It was one of the reasons for keeping the 3 Acre Vineyard small, to be able to try things. This idea isn’t mine, I first saw it at Radda in Chianti on the Poggerino Vineyard. The growing shoots of the Sangiovese are rolled onto a wine strung along the top of the posts rather than trimming, cutting the shoots when they grow taller than the trellis.
The idea is that trimming encourages new lateral or side growth and sends the vine into a vegetative cycle rather than a fruitful cycle whereas the rolled down shoots will simply stop growing and send a signal to the vine to concentrate on ripening fruit. It has the additional benefit of keeping more mature leaves to ripen the fruit, immature lateral leaves don’t help with ripening. Both good theories but, and there is a but, Chianti doesn’t have the vigour problems of the Mornington Peninsula and the job has turned out to be bigger than expected. We will have to see if it was worth it in the 2015 Vintage Sangiovese.
