I’m traveling in Italy today from Lake Garda to Bolzano, and it seems like all the vineyards up here are trellised in a way that I’m not familiar with.
Each post has two “arms” that extend upwards at 45° angles until the meet the “arms” of the adjacent rows. The vines then grow up the “arms” forming a “Y” with the trunk. The effect is almost like an arbor growing between each row. I’m including below some photos from a moving car. They’re not the best, but they sort of show what I’m talking about.
Does this form of trellising have a name? Is there a reason (other than tradition) why this form of trellising would be preferred over the vertical shoot positioning that I’m more familiar with?
Looks like a Geneva Double Curtain trellis. I’ve seen those, though I can’t remember where. I vaguely think they may be more common on cooler climates, as they allow more sun to get to the clusters.
The pergola system is very typical and traditional in Alto Adige. Despite being in the northern and mountainous area of Italy, it does get hot there. A major purpose of the system is to provide shade for the grapes hanging below the canopy but it also creates shade for the ground allowing it to stay cooler and help retain water. I think it’s kind of mixed when it comes to fungal diseases. If I understand correctly, there is some moisture retention and botrytis can be an issue but there is some mitigation against things like powdery mildew.
I’m no expert on this, but both sites I linked to say that this is used to expose more of the vine (at least the leaves) to sunlight, not to shade them, which makes sense when you look at the way the vines grow on these. And I would think the clusters, and not just the leaves, would get more sun this way.
An excellent system for large sized vines, the Geneva Double Curtain or GDC trellis design consists of a horizontally divided canopy. The goal of the GDC system is to manage a dense canopy by dividing it in two, allowing more sunlight to reach the fruit renewal zone.
There are usually lots of reasons why a traditional form of trellising will be used in an area, and usually it is much more logical for the climate than what you might think of as “normal trellising.”
I have heard of this type, don’t remember anything really about it…. but just looking at the photo with the flat ground and the mountains around it I would assume the higher head height for the vines would help quite a bit with frost (where cold air generally pools).
And FWIW, (without actually knowing the purpose in this case)it is completely possible for the canopy to get more sun while the heavier fruit dangles below and is shaded, and getting sun on fruiting canes (with the buds for the following year’s crop forming) is not the same thing as sun on the fruit itself.
This thread reminded me of a winery I used to work with on the Amalfi coast that had some pre-phylloxera vines over 100 years old. Check out the trellising.
Thanks for the article, Brig. I used some of.the keywords I learned from that article to search around and found an article in Italian that had some more info. I haven’t been able to translate it yet, but the figures make me think that I was seeing vines using a “pergola doppia trentina” system. At least the structures look similar. There’s probably no way to know for sure without stopping the car for a closer look.
While in Alto Adige keep an eye out for all the tiny vineyards. Often they are really not much bigger than a large suburban yard and some are obviously quite old. There are several high quality co-ops in the area and many or most of these grapes go to them. It’s on a scale I haven’t seen anywhere else and I like it very much.
Are they old? Asking because I think there has been a slight trend away from the pergola system in NE Italy because it’s kind of seen as the old, ie not the latest and greatest, method.
No, it’s pretty new. It’s tailored to the site’s challenges and their regenerative practices. There should be a write-up of our visit on here from Ken Zinns with more explanation.
I’d be careful with “latest and greatest”. While it’s important to re-examine why things are done a certain way and if they can be done better, there is also marketing for products and labor saving methods that can reduce quality.
Yes. That’s not necessarily my feeling, just what some appear to think. Schildknecht wrote an article a few years back mentioning the tragedy of the loss of genetic diversity when these old vines are ripped out.
The pergola Trentina I helped with near Occidental was angled upward toward the west at a 17° angle, so fruit would be shaded by it’s own canopy during afternoon sun. This arrangement helped on the hottest days, when delicate Pinot can shrivel and raisin.
Besides advanced ripening, other advantage: harvest and leafing/ suckering/ pruning work are near shoulder height, so less bending over. Tractors and implements must be low profile – we’d use a narrow & low Antonio Carraro articulated tractor.
