Winemaking - No AI in use here

Around Christmas / New Year in the Southern Hemisphere, leaf and shoots grow like Roman Candles, especially if there's good rain around.

It's important to open up emerging bunches to airflow and UV. This helps prevent humidity in the bunch zone. Humidity and low light is a fungus nursery - mildews being the enemy of great wine (unless you're going for a botrysized style, which takes great care).

Industrial vineyards will use machines to pluck leaves from the fruit zone. Some will use sheep to nibble leaves. As usual, Home Fields chooses the hard way! Hand-plucking affords a chance to thoroughly cleanout bunch zones and correct various errors such as crossed over shoots or missed shoots growing on the trunk.

It is painstaking work but the results as worth it. The flavours and tannins in finished red wine are largely imparted from the skins. Pinot Noir has notoriously thin skins, hence it's susceptibility to disease, insect attack and splitting. Exposing the bunches to air and UV early (even pre-flowering) is demonstrated to improve grape-skin development and by extension, flavours and mouthfeel.

So, a plucking we will go!