Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/197178
just lay a cane over it and then kind of disbud the spurs that were overlapping, then every year instead of starting the cane back at the trunk, we can extend it off of where we laid it down last year. Eventually we'll have a brand-new cordon that will completely replace the old one." Once the new cordon is in place, the old one can be severed from the vine trunk. "The problem was getting past this concept that cordons are a permanent structure, and that the whole vine goes the way of the cordon, which is kind of the mindset that everyone has been in," Halkovich said. "There's no reason we can't keep the roots and replace the top." Over 25 years, the oldest vines at Cakebread's home ranch had taken a bit of a beating, and some of the old vines had lost spur positions, which was the primary issue contributing to declining production. "Either tractors were hitting them, or Eutypa, or just wind damage," Halkovich said. "The vine still has the capacity to stay in balance, but we don't have the spur positions, so the question was, what can we do to re-establish those positions?" Decline in productivity can usually be attributed to one of several factors, Halkovich explained. Loss of spur positions is one of them. didn't have an issue with root disease. The vines were healthy. As long as you don't have diseases and you're thoughtfully maintaining your soil chemistry and soil structure, your roots should be healthy. In our cases the cordons were just old, and they needed to be replaced." REPLANT OR REJUVENATE Toby Halkovich, director of vineyard operations at Cakebread Cellars, found a way to preserve the winery's aging vineyard blocks. Then there's virus, and decline in the root structure of the plant. "Usually it's a combination of the three," he said. "In our case, we 2356 Research Drive - Livermore, CA 94550 (925) 371-0796 - contact@infaco-usa.com w w w. v w m m e d i a.com Replanting is always an option, of course, but it's horrendously expensive, and you lose production for three to four years. Then you still have to redevelop the quality of the fruit. Cakebread considered a number of factors in deciding to rejuvenate rather than replant. "These were some of our bestperforming vineyards and they had been for some time," Halkovich said. "When they were yielding well, they were performing well quality wise, so we were confident that we weren't going to screw that up. If there had been a lot of virus, it wouldn't have been worth it. We would have had to start over. If we didn't like the clone or if there was a quality issue, we probably would have replanted. Replanting is one of those things that everyone agrees we'd like to avoid. "The beauty of (this rejuvenation process is) that because we aren't T-budding, while we lay down the Battery-Operated Pruning Shears N ov - D ec 2013 | V INE YA RD & W INE RY M A N A G EM EN T 61