Here is another interview conducted by CCE-SC summer intern Matt Gura. He interviewed Barbara Shinn about her experiences with under trellis mowing at Shinn Estate Vineyards.

I spoke with Barbara Shinn, owner and vineyard manager at Shinn Estate Vineyards, about her thoughts on under-vine covers.  She has been maintaining an under-vine cover crop for just short of a decade now.  This was not always the case: “We began maintaining under-trellis cover in all earnest in 2004, 4 years after we began planting the vineyard. At first we kept the growth mowed very low throughout the growing season believing that aggressive growth under the vines may prove unmanageable and hinder air flow. Now we understand the rhythm of our vineyard meadow.”  Shinn Estates utilizes a custom built under-vine mower to strike a balance between controlling aggressive weeds penetrating the fruit zone while remaining concurrent with her biodynamic approach to management : “We mow twice in quick succession in April and May then mow only once in June, July and August for a total of 5 mowings per year. The important issue is timing the mowings in unison with the progression of the predominant pollinating species at any given time, as long as it is a species that you want to thrive on the vineyard floor. It is important to allow the pollinating species to set a hard seed thereby allowing them to complete a full life cycle. Pollen is quite important in maintaining beneficial insect habitat.”  Committing to a cover, however, did not come without some hesitation: “Ideally the under-vine cover crop should not consist of tall weeds that will inhabit the fruit zone of the vine. As the mowing becomes a standard practice in a given vineyard this concern basically disappears due to the fact that tall weeds can never set a hard seed. They are mowed before the seed head forms. With that said I tolerate some tall dry grasses that have gone to seed and late season flowering weeds that reach the fruit zone.”

Within the lens of biodynamic philosophy, Barbara elected to allow for natural cover to initiate under the vine rather than seeding: “Every plant has an earth, water, air and fire zone. The earth zone is the root, water is the leaf, air is the flower, and fire is the fruit or seed. The earth and water are cool/watery elements and the air and fire are hot/dry. So when you think about this, you don't want a watery element in the fruit zone such as green grasses or broadleaves, we all know a watery element in the fruit zone is trouble. However a hot/dry element is probably fine. Late season dry grass seed heads or aster and goldenrod flowers have never proven to be a problem. This way of conceiving of plants by elements is a Biodynamic practice and has helped me make important decisions about our under-trellis biomass.” Barbara decided that the most sensible option for under-vine cover was natural vegetation: “I believe opportunistic plants grow where they are needed so we have allowed natural cover to come in. We have about 20 grass species and over 40 broadleaf species on the vineyard floor.  As the meadow evolves new plant species appear every year signaling a more complex ecosystem. I have inter-seeded clover twice in 13 years down the row middles in order to fix more nitrogen in the soil.  Since shifting away from herbicides in 2004, she notes that the observed results have been favorable: “Quite frankly the entire vineyard has gone through a paradigm change and me along with it. To give a simple list in regards to the vineyard ecology: excess rain water uptake by shallow rooted opportunistic weeds, better soil tilth, increase in soil microorganisms and soil animals, lower requirement for outside soil amendments, beneficial insect population, less frequent hedging, a happier vineyard crew and a general sense of peace in the vineyard.  In regards to the fruit and wine: earlier ripening, higher Brix, better native yeast population on the berries, and more balanced wines.” 

Having been very pleased with her results since initiating and maintaining an under-vine cover, Barbara is optimistic about the potential sustainable progression of under-vine covers. “If the East Coast can eliminate or at least greatly reduce herbicide dependence in vineyards, and I believe we can do this on a large scale, East Coast vineyards will constitute some of the healthiest farm soils in America. We are farming a permanent crop and a woody species at that; we don't require yearly tilling which destroys soil structure and the vines will out-compete weeds as long as the vineyard floor is maintained. Allowing the vineyard soil to regulate its natural cycles autonomously will bring about ecological balance that is hard to match by human hands. The theory of entropy is that eventually all order will turn to chaos but with natural cycles the fact is that all chaos will turn to order.”

Interview by Matt Gura, CCE-SC intern.

Matt and our other summer intern Drew harvesting cow horns for Barbara's biodynamic preparations.