Jerry Lohr Knows How to Increase Quality in the Vineyard

 

By Tim Hammerich with the the Ag Information Network

J Lohr is a world recognized brand for their high-quality California wines. Proprietor Jerry Lohr says most of the quality wine is made in the vineyard. We recently caught up with him when he shared how they continue to push the boundaries in their viticulture practices to produce award-winning wine.

“So the way to increase quality is just this constant studying, for instance, how much sun do we need on the, on the fruit? What the nourishment is – less is better in this case. Especially nitrogen. You use nitrogen for other crops, but not for grapes. The time of harvest, that pruning level, the crop level, said Lohr

“The time of watering is what we’re talking about. So, we water very little in the summer, so we water on the spring. And I didn’t want to tell people what they should do know, I just wanted to kind of tell about what our winemakers are doing,he said.

“So what we do is we make sure the soil profile is filled in the spring. We water very little in the summer. And then we water for verasion in the fall – from verasion to ripeness. So farming is about 75 to 90% of it (wine quality) Others call it a regulated deficit irrigation, he noted. “So that’s a good way of describing it. Then we just go further than other people do, putting on more in the spring and less in the summer and that have water for the fall.”

Lohr said he looks for more direct-to-consumer opportunities for the brand in the future.