Growing grapes in Alsace

The decade of the vineyards

The 1990s has seen tremendous progress in the cellar. Improved understanding of the fermentation and stabilisation processes, improved technology and a willingness to make investments have increased the quality of both the average standard and the best wines. Today, very few Alsace wines are bad.

However, now the attention is turned to vineyard. The philosophy is that the vine should get optimal conditions to produce great fruit, and once the grape has released its fruit, the winemaker should intervene as little as possible.

Man should stand back in favour of the nature and the terroir.

Training

In Alsace, two training systems are allowed, simple and double Guyot. Double Guyot, the preferred method, means that two ∩-shaped branches (baguettes) carry the fruit-bearing shoots. The shoots are tied to horizontal steel wires (accolage), and receive extra support in early July when nylon string is added. Hence, a row of Alsace vines has the shape of a hedge, up to 200 cm high.

In Alsace, the following limitations apply for training (pallisage) and pruning (taillage):

AOC	Training	Pruning
Alsace	Simple Guyot	Max 22 eyes per vine
.	Dubbel Guyot	Max 10 buds per meter
Alsace Grand Cru	Dubbel Guyot	Gewurz: Max 12 buds per m2
.	.	Others: Max 8 buds per m2
Crémant d´Alsace	Dubbel Guyot	Max 12 buds per m2

The pruning aims to stimulate as well as to limit the plants ability to create vigorous shoots and fruit. In addition, it should shape the vine so it can give high quality fruit for more than half a century.

The training should ensure a good balance between leaf mass (photosynthesis) and fruit amount. In addition, sufficient aeration should be allowed to avoid rot during the maturation process.

The annual cycle

In all, each hectare requires ca 140 hours of labour in the field. Unfortunately, the work load is uneven over the year, the most intense period being the harvest. Still, it means that 10 ha of vineyards requires close to one man year.

The annual cycle is as follows:

Month	Activity
November − March	Pruning
April	Planting
May	Training
June	Pest prevention
June−July	Training and cutting
July − August	Green harvest (Vendange vert)
September	Cutting and harvest
October	Harvest and graftning
November	Late harvest

It is common to see small plants that have replaces older plants in a vineyard. There are two reasons to replant. One is of course to maintain the yield, but an other as important reason is to prevent remaining vines to seek shallow soils for their roots.

Beware of good looking rows

Apparently, almost all quality conscious growers have omitted weed prevention in the rows of vines. Most growers simply let the weed grow in every second row and mow the weed a few time each season. The other row is ploughed and/or seeded with rye or covered with straw. The weeds forces the roots of the vines downwards, while the soil cover prevents the soil from drying out.

Louis Sipp of Ribeauvillé has applied a special management system L´Enherbement Naturel Maîtricé, to get maximum benefit from the flora.

A deep rooting system is essential in order to extract qualities from the soil, and adds to the drought resistance.

The method allows the nitrogen and organic matter to be retained in the soil to improve the microbial status and to retain essential nutrients in the soil. However, many growers are very careful when it comes to working the soil as deep plowing will ledad to mineralisation and nitrification, and hence an excess of nitrogn.

In certain plots, one can see individual vines with yellow leaves. The cause for this is pockets of limestone with very high local pH-values. Normally, the roots of the vines can exude tartaric acid in order to increase the solubility of iron that is subsequently extracted from the soil. But if the pH is extremely high, this process is ineffective and the plant will yellow due to shortage of iron.

An ecological trend

Almost all growers show increased environmental concern, but work at different levels of ambition.

By organic viticulture, it is understood that neither artificial fertilizers nor copper-rich Bordeaux preparations are used. The copper appears as a di-valent positive ion and is thus an antagonist of the nutrients calcium and magnesium. Mineral fertilizers give a rapid supply of nutrient nitrogen, causing an uneven and unnatural plant growth.

One group of organic growers is "Vignes vivant", This group, counting some 60 growers has common facilities for composting all residue products from the vineyard into first class natural fertilizers. Fertilization is then based on soil analysis. Read more via this link. .

Reputed growers in "Vignes Vivantes" include Jean Dirler (Bergholtz), Sylvie Spielmann (Bergheim), Yves Gassmann (Rorschwihr), André Ostertag (Epfig) and Jean Schaetzel (Ammerschwihr).

In line with the antroposophic ideas, some growers practice strict biodynamic methods. The methods include additions of silica preparations in minute amounts, the use of energizing bowls, harvesting according to the lunar calendar and much more. In this category, we find world-class producers such as Josmeyer (Wintzenheim) and Frick (Pfaffenheim).