Shoot Thinning

July 17, 2019

The act of removing some shoots in order to improve the quality of the fruit, as well as to reduce vine stress. By thinning the shoots, the winegrower attempts to get the vine to put its energy into ripening its clusters rather than growing green vegetative parts.

Hock, the British nickname for Rhine wine, is named after the famous village of Hochheim in Germany. In which of the following regions is Hochheim located?

A. Mosel

B. Rheingau

C. Rheinhessen

D. Mittelrhein

Hochheim (pronounced HOE-hime) is located in Germany’s famous region known as the Rheingau. At first, hock implied a wine from Hochheim. Later, it came to mean any Rheingau wine; and later still, any Rhine wine. England’s Queen Victoria is credited with the line, “A bottle of hock keeps off the doc.”

“Wine is earth’s answer to the sun.”

—Margaret Fuller,
American journalist
(1810 – 1850)

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