Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/197178
Some of the oldest vines at Cakebread's home ranch had lost spur positions over the years. Cakebread Cellars Gives New Life to Old Vines Vine rejuvenation technique grows new cordons BY TIM AT A GLANCE + Lost spur positions decrease productivity in otherwise healthy old vines. + A new cordon can be grown without production loss, and can result in significant production gains. + Preserving the mature, healthy root system preserves the quality of oldvine fruit and maintains drought resistance. + In extreme cases, par- ticularly when blighted by Eutypa, the above-ground vine can be regrown from near the base of the trunk. 60 V I N E YA R D & WIN E RY MANAGEM ENT | TEICHGRAEBER 've toured plenty of wineries and vineyards, and 99 times out of 100 I don't see anything I haven't seen somewhere else. Then there's that once-in-a-blue-moon tour when you see something completely different. For me, a recent tour of the home ranch vineyards at Cakebread Cellars in Napa Valley was one of those rare ones that leave you scratching your head and wanting to know more. What I had seen were gnarled, woody old vines that were being radically retrained. Muscular, armlike cordons had been severed from the trunk and left dangling on the trellis wires that they had embraced over decades. The vines had old fat parts and young skinny parts, and the word that kept echoing in my mind was "Frankenvine." Cakebread's director of vineyard operations, Toby Halkovich, Nov - Dec 2013 a Sonoma County native and UC Davis graduate, explained that the winery was trying to rejuvenate the vines by growing new cordons that would have better-placed, healthier spur positions. The technique used allows Cakebread to do so without replanting. If successful, it could preserve the well-developed root system of the vines and increase yields, without sacrificing the depth of character of the best blocks of vines. As Halkovich explained, the concept came to him as a sort of revelation. "I was just sitting there thinking about it, and I thought, 'You know, we just lay these canes down every year, and if we leave them, they're going to turn into cordons eventually.' It's not rocket science," he said. "The idea was that if we have an existing cordon, why can't we w w w. v wm m e d i a . c o m