At this time of year the flowering is now complete and the little grapes are beginning to grow. Presently they are around 3-5mm diameter. As well as finishing our shoot thinning we are also starting remove leaves from around the fruiting zone. This has a number of benefits. It aids berry development and can reduce green flavours. Berry skins thicken which is great for tannin and colour extraction in red varietals. It increases airflow in the canopy which reduces disease pressure. It exposes the berries to UV light early and reduces the risk of sunburn later in the ripening process.
This video just briefly shows the mechanism of leaf removal - essentially the leaves are pulled into a rotary blade by means of a vaccum. Other more technical machines such as the Collard Defoliators work on pulsed air pressure to do the same job.
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Last year, I made a short summer vineyard movie in Germany. You can find it here: http://blog.johner.de/2008/07/sommer-am-kaiserstuhl/
Just fast forward to 1 min 20 sec and there you can see different types of pulsed air pressure defoliating machines.
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