Crop thinning of merlot - a Queensland perspective

Abstract

Merlot is one of the major wine grapes planted in Queensland, however with the wine industry in Queensland being relatively new there is limited knowledge of best practice for production of quality fruit for wine production in the state. Timing of crop thinning has been shown to influence grape quality (Filippetti et al. 2007) and this practice is commonly employed by growers in the state to manipulate fruit and wine quality. A trial was thus carried out in the 2008 season to investigate the influence of pea size and véraison crop thinning on yield and fruit quality of Merlot in two commercial vineyards located in Queensland’s Granite Belt and South Burnett.