The Winkler Vine was an example of large-vine grape culture. The vine was named after Albert J. Winkler, Chair of the Department of Viticulture and Enology (1935–1957) at

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Davis, California, United States. It is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University ...

. Planted in 1979, the Winkler vine was a ''

Vitis vinifera ''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine, is a species of flowering plant, native to the Mediterranean Basin, Mediterranean region, Central Europe, and southwestern Asia, from Morocco and Portugal north to southern Germany and east to northern ...

'' cv. Mission, grafted on to a ''

Vitis rupestris ''Vitis rupestris'' is a species of grape native to the United States that is known by many common names including July, Coon, sand, sugar, beach, bush, currant, ingar, rock, and mountain grape. It is used for breeding several French-American hy ...

'' St George

rootstock A rootstock is part of a plant, often an underground part, from which new above-ground growth can be produced. It could also be described as a stem with a well developed root system, to which a bud from another plant is grafted. It can refer to ...

. A great deal of research has been carried out on pruning,

training Training is teaching, or developing in oneself or others, any skills and knowledge or fitness that relate to specific useful competencies. Training has specific goals of improving one's capability, capacity, productivity and performance. I ...

and vine size; by researchers such as: Ravaz, Winkler, Shaulis, Koblet, Howell, Carbonneau, Smart & Clingeleffer. Minimal pruning is a pruning/training system adapted from the principles of big-vine theory.

History

The

Mission Mission (from Latin 'the act of sending out'), Missions or The Mission may refer to: Geography Australia *Mission River (Queensland) Canada *Mission, British Columbia, a district municipality * Mission, Calgary, Alberta, a neighbourhood * ...

grape cultivar was originally brought to

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

from

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

missionaries and was introduced into

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

in the 18th century. Historically Mission was the most widely planted cultivar in California, up to the 1850s. The Winkler Vine was trained on a 60x60ft steel arbour, covering 1/12 of an acre and was capable of producing over a tonne of fruit. The Winkler vine was damaged by a tractor 'early in its life' and carried a large canker; eventually the vine became infected with the wood rot, Eutypa, causing its death in spring 2008.

Big vine viticulture

The vine was the classic example of big vine culture, where vines are trained and pruned to allow the plant to express its natural vigour; rather than forcing a vine into a restricted trellis system by heavy

pruning Pruning is the selective removal of certain parts of a plant, such as branches, buds, or roots. It is practiced in horticulture (especially fruit tree pruning), arboriculture, and silviculture. The practice entails the targeted removal of di ...

. Eventually a 'big-vine' will reach its maximum size and yield compensation will result in 'balanced' cropping. Big vine production of grapes is not economically feasible due to the time taken to establish the plant. It does, however, demonstrate the natural ability of a vine to produce fruit in a sustainable manner (yield vs. fruit ripeness vs.

carbohydrate A carbohydrate () is a biomolecule composed of carbon (C), hydrogen (H), and oxygen (O) atoms. The typical hydrogen-to-oxygen atomic ratio is 2:1, analogous to that of water, and is represented by the empirical formula (where ''m'' and ''n'' ...

storage).

References

{{reflist 2008 endings Individual plants University of California, Davis campus Viticulture