Premium Grapes for
Premium Wine
See why our Grapes are High-Quality Grade Wine Grapes
At PADS View Farm we call ourselves a premium vineyard because we are dedicated to quality. All cultural practices are completed by hand within critical time periods, including pruning beginning mid-Februaryo and final pruning/selection of fruiting canes to lay down late March, Shoot Selection late April into May, and shoot tucking through the end of May until flower period.
After fruit set in, June leaf pulling begins to expose BB size grapes to maximum sun, good airflow, and spray penetration.
Finally, all grape clusters are harvested by hand.
Leaf Pulling allows us to increase the polyphenols and flavonoids in the grapes, which results in a pronounced fruit-forward wine. Out grapes do not have the "green vegetable" flavors. We achieve optimal brix numbers because of our Leaf Pulling practices producing good airflow, plenty of sunshine on our grape clusters, & good cluster penetration of spray materials/airflow.
In addition, we focus on building the terroir with organic micro and macronutrients. For example, we use AAA-grade high microbial life compost.
We want to continue to group quality grapes - not just this year but for future years as well.
Our Focus: Building our vineyards soil and accentuate our natural terroir
Steps we have taken:
Mehlich-3 and Saturated Paste Soil Test: This year we did an extensive soil test across all of our vineyard blocks, we used Mehlich-3 and the Saturated Paste Soil Test for all of our samples. This way I can see the difference between what nutrients are available in the soil and what nutrients are available to our vines. This gives a clearer picture of when and how much nutrients to add to our vineyard blocks.
Every Block was treated independently of each other. The most important addition was testing for Micronutrients and Silica content of our soil. We will be adding CropSIL into our spray program which is biologically active silica, that aids in pest defense and has been shown to increase yield. Silica will aid in the thickening of plants' cellular walls and will put a coating on the outside of the plant that is hard and does not taste good to pests, a two-fold defense system.
Terroir:
Micronutrients that were added to OUR SOIL:
Manganese Sulfate
Boron
Zinc Sulfate
Copper Sulfate
These are crucial to the soil food web and the quality of our terroir. Terroir is everything when it comes to growing high-quality wine grapes. This is why we are investing in BUILDING our soil.
Compost:
Another large investment in building our soils was using Compost in our vineyards. We sourced AAA-grade compost that is full of biological activity proven with COA. Something that is overlooked in modern-day agriculture is the understanding of the soil food web and how its role is a large factor in what nutrients are available to the plant. A great example is thinking about the total of bacteria 1 human
the body contains, the answer is 38 trillion cells of bacteria. What does this tell you? Bacteria in your gut are directly affected by what you eat. This determines what chemical signals are sent to your brain. When you eat healthy foods, your gut bacteria will change into a healthy gut biome, which results in a higher amount of dopamine and serotonin being delivered to the brain. This is caused by the gut-brain connection. Vice Versa if you choose to eat unhealthy and cause gut inflammation your bacteria will change, and this will result in negative feelings, more cortisol, and more inflammation, which results in feeling sore and lethargic. It is very similar to how things work in our soil. The soil is filled with bacteria as well, and other microbiology such as mycelium. These work in synchronicity with each other and can break down nutrients in the soil to make them biologically available to the vines. By increasing the soil's biological activity, you are giving the soil the tools to break down macro and micronutrients, so the vines can use the nutrients. In addition, mycelium can create a neural network that will search for the needed nutrients by a plant, based upon the exudates ( sugar chemical compound that has a message inside) the mycelium eats the exudates ( that have a specific chemical code to tell the mycelium what nutrients the plant is looking for), the mycelium will use its neural network to source the nutrients and transport them back to the roots of the vine. Therefore, by increasing the biological activity in our soil, we can increase the robustness of our soil, increase the amount of nutrients in our soil, and aid in the cycle of the soil food web. All of these things add up to BUILDING our soil. Which has been proven to work for centuries.
Compost is widely used in vineyards on the West Coast as well, it works particularly well because compost naturally does not contain a lot of nitrogen. Low Nitrogen Soil Amendments work great in a vineyard because they do not over-saturate the vine with nitrogen which will result in the vine pushing more green vegetation and less fruit production. Growing vines is a balance and compost allows us to keep the soil nutritional profile in balance while also increasing the biological activity and helping balance the soil food web. Just like brewers and winemakers maintain an environment to allow the yeast to do its job of fermentation, We need to give our soil the proper bacteria to allow the soil food web to do its job.
Key Process: Shoot Selection
Shoot Selection is done by hand and with careful selection. We aim for quality over quantity and that starts with shoot selection. We are shooting for 4-5 canes per foot of fruiting cane which allows the vines to dedicate its resources to a limited amount of grapes per vine. This practice ensures optimal ripeness and allows us to hit target brix, TA, and pH.
Quality Spray System:
Our spray system is a process that ensures our grapes remain safe, untouched, and free of harm from insects, pests, and other crop-compromising situations.
This system becomes more efficient yearly, and we overcome each new challenge head-on to maintain our grapes' premium quality.
Row Maintenance:
Our clean hedging and leaf pulling allow us to increase polyphenols and flavonoids in the grapes as mentioned above. We are able to achieve optimal brix numbers because of the leaf-pulling practices that give the airflow we desire, plenty of sunshine exposure, and quality cluster penetration of the spray materials.
SAY HELLO
120 roop rd
rising sun, md 21911
padsviewfarm@gmail.com
