Hi all, I'm resurrecting this thread in the hope that some of you may have made some progress in the past 6 years.
My wife and I bought a property in Portugal a couple of years ago and with it came a couple acres of vineyard. We were lucky enough to move in just before the grape harvest and a Portuguese neighbour was kind enough to show us how to make wine. The following winter he taught us the basics of pruning the vines and, when spring came around and the buds we starting to open, he showed up again and said "right, is time for us to spray the vines". We protested and, with our terrible Portuguese, attempted to persuade him that maybe it wasn't necessary to indiscriminately spray the vines with chemicals. At this point, I think he felt we were a lost cause and we haven't received any help since!
This year it seems we are victims of black rot and I am wondering if our romantic ideals of growing chemical-free grapes is wishful thinking. We are definitely up for trying some of the methods mentioned in this thread, such as raising the vines off the ground and partnering then with fungicidal herbs, but it would be great to know if any of these have proved successful.
Thanks.
