How to start your own vineyard: More on Spacing

When we were up at the vineyard this weekend, I double-checked the vine spacing and we apparently planted the vines 6 feet apart with rows 10 feet apart. I then went back to our bible,
From Vines to Wines: The Complete Guide to Growing Grapes and Making Your Own Wine, to determine why we did this.  It was very simple.  Jeff Cox, the author, had a table that outlined suggested spacing West of the Rockies and East of the Rockies. According to him, vigorous vines, such as native American varieties, should be planted 8 feet apart with 10 feet between rows. Low to medium vigor should be planted 6 feet apart with 10 feet between rows since they don't need as much room to grow. Since we were going to plant some hybrids and some Vinifera, we chose 6 foot spacings. 

There was one other interesting tidbit. In northern areas like Canada (north of 42 degrees latitude), overall vineyard temperatures were higher if the vines were planted on a slope and the rows are spaced closer than 10 feet.  Seven feet apart is apparently optimal. In northern climates with short growing seasons, it's hard to reach the optimal sugar level needed in the grapes before harvest.  So if you space the vines closer, more sunlight hits the leaves, the vineyard temperature rises, and your grapes ripen(hopefully) before the first frost.

In a previous post, I wrote about the devastating May 20th frost that killed all the buds on the vines.  The local wine grape agent advised vintners in the region to sit tight and they would likely see some secondary buds emerge.  When we went to the vineyard this weekend, we were happy to see that this did happen.  It was curious though that the white variety, Traminette, fared much better than our Cabernet Franc. 

Above is a picture of a row of our white variety, Traminette.  Traminette is a French-American hybrid cross between Gewurztraminer and Joannes Seyve.  The resulting variety, Traminette, has the taste of Gewurztraminer coupled with superior disease resistance and cold hardiness.  Obviously, it's breeding brought this vine through a hard frost with a respectable amount of secondary buds and a decent chance at some kind of harvest. 

On the other hand, this is a heart-breaking picture of a Cabernet Franc vine annihilated by the late spring frost. This proves that Vinifera vines are much more tender than the hybrids. Looks like we won't have much red wine this year.