Grapevine Vigour and Within-Vineyard Variability: a Review

Vine vigour involves the production capacity of the vine. Production capacity encompasses shoot and leaf production, as well as grape production. It would benefit grape production systems to find the correct balance between the vegetative growth (shoot and leaf “production”) and reproductive development (grape production). One could optimise vine performance by improving vine balance. Vine balance and optimal vine performance are functions of the vine’s production capacity, including vine vigour, crop load and crop level. Different ratios exist with regard to vine vigour and crop load, namely yield: shoot weight, yield/leaf surface and shoot weight/leaf surface. These three ratios describe the growth-yield relationship and their goal is to quantify vine vigour. Many factors influence the growth-yield relationship such as climatic and soil conditions as well as vineyard management practices. The influential factors are diverse and differ on a local and global scale with regard to viticulture. Variability exists not only with regard to climate, soil conditions and cultural practices, but also in the vineyard. This is known as withinvineyard variability. Spatial variation in vine vigour can occur even if vines are of the same age, clone and uniformly managed. Therefore it could be beneficial to the grower to understand within-vineyard variability by focusing on achieving balanced vegetative growth and reproductive development for each vine within a vineyard.