Questions about Vineyards

[Jefferson]

Greetings!

I am doing research on winemaking for the publisher of "Secrets of the Vine," sequel to the NYT #1 bestselling book, "The Prayer of Jabez." The publisher is creating a devotional guide for "Secrets" and needs lots of new information on the art, science, and craft of winemaking. I'm hoping you can help.

What I'll do is just post at the end of this message the list of questions given to me by the publisher. If you see one or more you'd like to speak to, I'd be greatly appreciative. Thank you!

Note: It will be obvious in some of these questions that I personally don't know anything about vineyards and winegrowing. Please excuse my newbieness!

Jeff Gerke
For Multnomah Publishers

*** List of Questions ***

1. What legendary records and great stories are there surrounding this subject?

2. What is the sweetest grape? The finest eating grape? The best wine grape?

3. How many grapes does it take to make a glass of wine? A quart of jelly?

4. How long does a good branch get?

5. What are the reasons for pruning?

6. What makes a grape (or wine) sweet or bitter or other wise affects the taste?

7. Why is the skin of some grapes thicker than others?

8. What makes some grapes hardy and some not?

9. What is the premiere kind of vine? The premiere grape? What makes it best?

10. What about grafting? How is it used and why?

11. What does a vinedresser do? (See also #25.)

12. What are the primary diseases that make a branch not bear fruit, and what does the vinedresser do to combat these?

13. What are the different pruning methods? Pruning seasons? What happens?

14. How do you measure the success of a harvest-—in pounds, sweetness, value?

15. What percent of grapes are used for wine? For eating? For raisins? For jelly?

16. What are the most commercially important grapes?

17. What are the most commercially important growing regions?

18. How many branches can a vine handle?

19. How long does an average branch grow naturally? How long should one be allowed to grow for optimum grape output?

20. What about the root system? Age? Bearing years?

21. If you don’t prune a branch for a year/two years/longer, what happens?

22. If you found a wild vine and started pruning it, what would happen?

23. How does weather affect harvest?

24. What are the primary pruning tools? What are special tools and for what are they used?

25. What does a master vinedresser do that most novices don’t or won't do?

26. How long does it take to bring a branch or vine to maximum abundance and quality?

27. What would make a vinedresser cut a branch off and burn it? Is this a common practice? Out of a theoretical 100 branches, how many would typically get cut off?

28. How many years does an average branch/vine last?

29. If you continue to cut a branch for 10 years, will a new branch still start in its place?

30. If you were to track the harvest of a branch over the lifetime, what would you see in terms of volume of harvest?

31. What is the single greatest threat to the health of a vineyard?

32. How has the art and science of winegrowing changed since ancient times? Since medieval times? Since the turn of the century?