Viticulture
Rootstocks and grafting
Growing one variety's fruit on another species' roots — and what else that lets you control.
Overview
Grafting attaches a cutting of the fruiting variety to a rootstock that resists phylloxera. The wine is made from the grafted variety; the roots simply keep it alive.
Rootstock choice has become a tool in its own right. Different rootstocks confer drought tolerance, lime tolerance, more or less vigour, and different ripening timing.
That makes rootstock selection an increasingly important response to climate change, since it can shift a vine's water demands without changing the variety.
Sources
Sources consulted
- UC Davis Department of Viticulture and Enology — University of California, Davis
More in the vineyard
Viticulture
Climate and wine style
The largest single influence on what a wine tastes like — larger than grape, producer or winemaking, and the reason the same variety is unrecognisable in two places.
Viticulture
Climate change and wine
Warming is already reshaping where wine is grown and what it tastes like.
Viticulture
Harvest and picking decisions
When to pick — the single most consequential decision a producer makes each year.