What is a Grape Vine Clone?

For many, the phrase brings to mind scientists in laboratories, but the truth is vineyards around the world have selected and reproduced their best vines for centuries.

A vine clone is a cutting taken from an existing grape vine, usually one that shows a specific trait that growers want to replicate through the vineyard. This could be increased disease resistance, yield, the ability to ripen early or exceptional fruit quality. The cutting is then grafted onto a ‘root stock’, which are the roots of another vine that performs well in certain soil types- all tailored to individual vineyard sites. So as you can see, a clone is a cutting taken from a specific vine rather than the result of cross breeding, or genetic modification.

Matt Ashford, vineyard Manager says “We have planted still wine clones, that means they’re vines that have been chosen to consistently produce really excellent quality still wine. We have a mixture of still wine clones in our bigger vineyard because they can perform differently in different years-this increases our chances of being able to produce outstanding quality still wine year after year.”

Once grafted and established, the vine is influenced by a number of other factors such as the location of the vineyard, the weather, different pruning methods, the use (or absence of) pesticides and fungicides, and which root stock is chosen. Matt adds “It’s important to know that selecting the right clones and root stocks is just the first step to creating excellent wine, and never a guarantee! It’s just one of the tools we use along with careful vineyard management that ensures exceptional still wine quality at Wayfarer Wines”