So we have had L'Acadie Blanc in the vineyard for over 10 years first planting it in the test vineyard to see how it would grow. It really has not grown well in that part of the vineyard and struggles with the low moisture in the very sandy and rocky soil. The additional hurdle of low nutrients in the soil there slowed its growth, even with ammendments.
What we did see from the test vineyard is that it is a very hardy vine, disease resistant and easily ripens the grapes in our climate. The draw back was that the clusters on the vines were small and often poorly filled with very low production per vines.
This vine is the queen of the white wine grape varieties in Nova Scotia and produces large crops that are made into wines of various styles that range in profiles form dry wine similar to sauvignon blanc, an off-dry that reminds one of chablis, to sparkling wines that are winning international awards.
This vine is a favourite of our and despite the challenges experienced int he test vineyard, we took a bit of a chance and decided to plant a small lot of 1000 row feet in the new area in the vineyard where the soil is excellent, a silty sand with more nutirents and holds more moisture. It worked out well and the vines have grown well in the new area. Last year, the 3rd years since we planted them, we were holping for a small crop but the late spring frost really knocked them back.
This year we have a nice crop althought we are finding the vines tend to over bear on each shoot (often 4 clusters) and also push secondaries on nearly every node. Note that the #1 and 2 clusters are often 100 grams, sometimes more. We pruned back to 5 shoots per foot of trellis and 2 clusters per shoot but will need to tinker with this going forward - maybe only 4 shoots per foot.
We have a sizeable crop for year four and the grapes are ripening very well. As of October 10 they are about 14 brix. What we do know about this variety is it really accumulates sugar fast and should be in the high teens by the end of the month early October.
