CHAPTER 23 | 1980–1982 – Out of the Cold
John Angove of Angove’s Renmark, South Australia 1980. [Angove Collection]
Smart’. These new techniques permitted better aeration and fruit exposure, resulting in improved colour, flavour development, and tannin ripeness. Lower humidity within the vines also promoted less disease pressure. Smart’s groundbreaking book Sunlight into Wine heavily influenced vineyard management throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, especially with small winemaking ventures. Despite the benefits of the Smart-Dyson trellis system, commercial ventures sometimes compromised the quality of the fruit by employing other techniques in the vineyard to promote higher yields. New, efficient methods of vineyard management were introduced, especially for large-scale vineyards in remote areas or where labour costs compromised the ability to compete with the production of commercial wine. Two forms of mechanised pruning evolved in the early 1980s. According to the distinguished viticulturalist Allen Jenkins, ‘The most common was machine pruning, which involved hedging spur-pruned, cordon- trained vines by cutting dormant canes on the sides and top of the cordon back to approximately 50–100mm length’. The system was designed to mimic spur pruning. After machine pruning, a team of vineyard workers would hand prune and clean up anything that had been missed. The technology and techniques of machine pruning and machine harvesting would be greatly improved over the forthcoming years, making this method a very successful commercial vineyard management tool.
The concept of minimal pruning, introduced by the CSIRO Merbein during this time, is now largely discredited. The cost-effective concept of zero winter pruning and zero hand pruning instead led to excessive build- up of dead wood, large internal shaded areas, and ballooning canopies. These mangled-looking ‘monstrous’ vines were a harbour for disease, viruses, pests, and uneven fruit quality. While efficient pruning systems were important for large-scale vignerons, most smaller vignerons preferred to continue hand pruning their vines. This tried and proven method over the centuries has allowed vineyards to maintain health and control yields. But later observations surrounding vine truck disease (eutypa dieback and Botryosphaeria ) would result in new ways to minimise pruning wounds.
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