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Wine yield

See under Yield.

Term for the yield of grapes harvested during the grape harvest, usually expressed in hectolitres of grape must or wine per hectare or in kilograms of grapes per hectare. Overseas, tons/acre is also commonly used. This is also used as a wine law specification, expressed as a maximum yield in hectolitres per hectare, for certain wine quality levels and can vary greatly depending on the country, wine-growing region, individual sites or even specific wines. In terms of vine density, there has been an extreme reduction over the last two millennia.

The Romans still recommended 50,000 vines per hectare; this ruled out mechanical cultivation of the vineyard from the outset. In the middle of the 19th century, the average density was still 20,000 vines per hectare, with yields of no more than 40 hectolitres per hectare. Today, the vines are planted 1.5 to 2 metres apart (depending on the country and wine-growing region, as well as any regional requirements).

Ertrag - Handlese, hohe Ertrag (viele Weintrauben am Stock) und maschinelle Lese

Yields per vine

In general, it is customary to plant an average of 5,000 vines per hectare (see vine training). On a rough average, one vine yields 1.5 to 2.5 kg of grapes for reduced-yield quality wine, which results in 1.5 to 2 bottles of wine of 0.75 litres each. For specialities, or Prädikats such as Beerenauslese, Trockenbeerenauslese or Eiswein, it is considerably less. For the grape varieties grown in Germany and Austria, an average of around 55 to 75 litres of must can be expected from 100 kilograms of grapes at normal ripeness. The yield quantity and grape quality in the vineyard is controlled by the winegrower through various measures throughout the year, including pruning and foliage care, as well as thinning out (green harvest) and grape division or grape breakage.

Calculation formula

The yield is calculated using the following formula: average number of grapes per vine x average grape weight in kg x number of vines per hectare gives the yield in kg/ha. A more precise formula, taking into account specific values, comes from the website "Dienstleistungszentren Ländlicher Raum Rheinland-Pfalz": (pruning [eyes/vine] x budding rate [%] x average number of grapes/vine x average grape weight [g/grape] x number of vines/ha) / 1000 = yield [kg/ha]. An example is (12 eyes/vine x 90% x 2.2 bunches/shoot x 120 g/grape x 5000 vines/ha) / 1000 = 14,256 kg/ha. The specific values per...

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