In addition to routine tying and combing, the vineyard crew will try to mechanically hedge a portion of the Marquette and La Crescent blocks. These vines are particularly vigorous and if we don’t remove some of the growth, the fruit is excessively shaded and it doesn’t develop the flavors we want. But, manual hedging is time consuming and expensive. This has to be done carefully because we have to leave at least 7–8 leaves beyond the fruit so that there is enough surface area of leaf to provide the required photosynthesis for sugar production.
