We grow our grapes without chemicals. Spraying herbicides and insecticides is common practice and products are monitored by federal and state agencies so it is simply a choice for us to not use them. We do use ground spread nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium fertilizer which is food for our vines (all of these are elements and found in nature). What we do not use are manufactured chemicals to spray on our leaves or grapes.
What this means is you can literally eat the grapes off of the vines and those are the same grapes that end up in our wine.
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Irrigation
All plants require water as part of the photosynthesis process, the conversion of sunlight into growth, fruit and survival. Water is in the equation and without it, the plant would not survive. What varies between all plant species is the amount of water they need to live and produce fruit properly.
Grapes do not need the same amount of water as do other fruit crops. Grape vines are tough, ready to grow in the a wide range of environments including rock and limestone! You perhaps have seen vines growing in very rocky soil in Italy and Spain. They simply do not need a high amount of water during their growing season. What can hurt grapes is overwatering and during heavy rain events, caution must be taken to drain or remove the water before the ground becomes over-saturated.
Over watering hurts the vine and grapes because while the vines are tough, the grape fruit is somewhat delicate. The grapes themselves will absorb the water, fill the body of the grape and stretch the skin bursting it. Rain or watering late in the growing season can negatively impact the grapes and should be avoided.
