At some point every year a grapevine will likely produce too many shoots to effectively farm a vineyard. Left unmaintained, a vine's shoots will form a dense mass of foliage that prevents spray, sunlight, and air penetration. In a vigorous growing region like the Mid-Atlantic, an unmaintained vineyard can resemble a jungle. This is because a grapevine's natural tendency is to grow and spread as much as possible while producing only as much fruit (and only as sweet) as require

Important to any professional winemaking operation is the continual refinement of production goals and styles. All too often wineries fall victim to something called house palate (aka cellar palate). This is is simply the phenomenon by which your own wine becomes the benchmark for how to produce wine in general. This is never the case. There's always a better standard to aspire to. In developing wine regions such as the Mid-Atlantic, it's easy to convince yourself to stop pus