The Winemakers Bookshelf

Gary Strachan
The only Indispensable Viticulture Book

In my past columns Ive taken it for granted that any BC grower with an interest in grapes must
surely have a copy of the latest edition of the BC grape management guide. The current edition
has changed both its name and format. It is now known as the Best Practices Guide for Grapes
for British Columbia Growers. It has ISSN 198-001X, and can be purchased through the BC
Wine Grape Development Council website http://www.bcwgc.org/wine/.

I have copies of the management guide which date back to 1981. In spite of the admonition that
all previous recommendations are out of date and should be disregarded, I still occasionally refer
back to previous versions of the guide. In some cases, older versions have more details on a
particular topic or it may have been expressed in a different manner that helps me to understand
why the present version has been expressed in a different way.

The BC guide is divided into 10 main subject areas and although it has been written in a concise
fashion, it is still over 200 pages long; not bad for a book that covers the whole of viticulture
from basic physiology to insect identification.. The book is a must read for anyone who is
considering the establishment of a vineyard and it is also a daily how to manual for those who
operate any vineyard. No decisions should be made without consulting this basic reference. A
good list of further resources is also listed at the end of the guide.

Speaking of further resources, there are lots of grape guides posted on the web. Unfortunately
they are in various formats. The simplest to access are those posted in pdf (Adobe Acrobat)
format. Acrobat is a free programme that can be downloaded, and many public files are posted
in this format. I find these files to be the most trouble free because Acrobat is a graphics format
and seamlessly integrates text and graphics into a file that always stays the same with everything
as it was in the original. If the information is simply posted on a web page, it will be in html
format and when you save it onto you computer hard drive, you will note that it has a file
extension (the last three letters of the file name) of .htm. After you try to save an html file, you
may find the pictures missing or repositioned into strange places. Some guides are also posted
as WORD files. When you download these files, you must have an installation of WORD or
WordPerfect in order to open them. The file extension of these files is .doc. There is also a
free download (Open Office) that will allow you to view, print, and edit WORD files. WORD
files also have the annoying habit of losing pictures or inserting them in strange places during a
download into your word processing programme. As you will see, one of the greatest
challenges to access these guides is to avoid a typo while entering the URL address for the sites!

I have so many of these guides on my hard drive that I found it easier to store them in a separate
folder so that I can easily find them. Even though I use Google desktop to search my files by
topic, I find it easier to open the folder in Explorer and scroll through the list by file name.
Even with the guides listed below, you will find others if you are patient, and dont mind
checking out a few thousand search engine links on the topic.

Our closest neighbours to the south have two excellent grape guides; one is a general pest
management guide and the other written for Maritime Western Washington. The pest
management guide is available as a free pdf download at
http://cru.cahe.wsu.edu/CEPublications/eb0762/eb0762.pdf. The Maritime climate grape
guide is posted at http://cru.cahe.wsu.edu/CEPublications/eb2001/eb2001.pdf.

Oregon also has a pest control guide oriented toward the coastal climate of Oregon, posted at
http://wine.oregonstate.edu/files/file_upload/OR_pest_management_guide_2005.pdf.

Because of space limitations I will simply list a few more grape management guides and their
URLs without comment:

Colorado GrowersGuide:
http://www.colostate.edu/Programs/wcrc/Viticulture/GrapeGrowersGuide1998.pdf

Mid Atlantic grape growers Guide

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/resources/winegrape/

Mid Atlantic IPM guide

http://www.virginiafruit.ento.vt.edu/grape-fruit-ipm.html

Midwest Grape Production Guide

http://ohioline.osu.edu/b919/index.html

Midwest small fruit and grape spray guide

http://hort.agriculture.purdue.edu/pdfs/07SprayGuide.pdf

North Carolina Grape Growers Guide

http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/hort_sci/fruit/winegrapes.html

Queensland Australia Grape guide

http://wwwsdc.dpi.qld.gov.au/cps/rde/xchg/dpi/hs.xsl/26_6149_ENA_Print.htm

Pennsylvania State Growers Information

http://winegrape.cas.psu.edu/grapevine/gv_spring_02/gv_sustainable_vineyard.htm

New York and Pennsylvania Pest Management

http://ipmguidelines.org/grapes/default.asp

Napa IPM Handbook

http://www.nswg.org/IPM%0Handbook.pdf

Cooperative Research Centre for Viticulture, Australia (CRCV)

http://www.crcv.com.au/viticare/vitinotes/

In addition to the formal grape management guides, there is a wealth of other material posted by
the universities, journals, trade publications, and universities. One of the best links is from
Oregon State University: http://berrygrape.oregonstate.edu/category/fruit-growing/grape-
production/.

Even though some of the material may seem redundant, I find that every time I encounter a new
monograph, I seem to encounter a new point of view or a new bit of information. Its amazing
how many ahah moments are posted on the web!

Gary Strachan can be reached at gestrachan@alum.mit.edu

There are many grape guides posted on the internet.

All it takes to find them is a little patience to scan
through the files, and find the correct links.

The BC grape guide is the one indispensable book for

BC grape growers. It provides concise background
information and day to day advice on the operation of a
vineyard.