How a widely dismissed trellising system can boost productivity and quality
By Kathleen Willcox
Wine styles and production methods fall in and out of fashion: just consider the ubiquity, disappearance and newly resurrected practices of aging wine in amphora or using wild yeast, and the “new” phenomenon of rosé. Farming practices, too, are cyclical. See: cover crops, field blends and high-density plantings.
But there’s one trellising system that’s managed to evade ever trending, while still being widely beloved by admirers in specific circumstances. The Scott Henry system is seen by advocates as a secret weapon that delivers more — and vastly superior — fruit. Read on for insight into the training system that is at once beloved and disregarded.
History & How it Works
Pioneering winemaker Calvin Scott Henry III, better known as Scott, invented the trellis system in 1982. (Henry recently passed away, on Oct. 26, 2023, at the age of 86.) An engineer by training, he noticed that the vineyards he planted in Oregon’s rain-soaked Umpqua Valley were producing rot-prone grapes. He opted to add a second wire below the solo wire he had to split the cluster, essentially doubling the amount of fruit he could grow, and exposing it to more air and sunshine in the process.
Henry was not the only person to create a divided canopy system — others include the Smart Dyson and Geneva Double Curtain.
“The Scott Henry trellis system lets you grow twice as many shoots per linear foot when compared to VSP [the Vertical Shoot Positioning trellis system],” says Raptor Ridge Winery’s winemaker and founder Scott Shull, who produces around 9,000 cases of wine annually and uses Scott Henry for about half of the fruit he grows. “The system has gotten a bad reputation for producing low quality fruit because it’s been used just to boost production in sites that don’t really need it.”
Evan Bellinger, director of vineyard operations at Results Partners, which manages more than 200 vineyards in Oregon, deploys Scott Henry frequently — but he agrees it’s not appropriate for every site.
“It doesn’t work across the board,” Bellinger says. “It’s a useful tool in the right scenario and can create more balanced fruit — and more of it. If a site has high vigor, and the vines need to dilute its energy into more growing points, more leaves, more fruit, then Scott Henry helps create balance.”
Addresses Vigor, Brings Fruit Back Into Balance
The key, advocates agree, is the right scenario and site.
“In 2004, I noticed that my old vine Pinot Noir wasn’t setting properly,” says Bill Holloran, co-founder of Holloran Vineyard Wines in Dundee, Ore. “Old vines can sometimes get too much nitrogen in certain sites. We started experimenting with Scott Henry in 2014, despite the bad reputation it had, and we found it quickly brought our fruit back into balance.”
Of the three sites he farms — two in Dundee Hills and one in Eola-Amity Hills — two of the Dundee sites are partially converted to the Scott Henry system. About 40 percent of his Dundee acreage, he estimates, is devoted to Scott Henry.
Shull says Scott Henry has been a game-changer for the Grüner Veltliner he farms in Newberg, Ore.
“Grüner is so vigorous,” he explains. “The Scott Henry system helps absorb some of that energy and vigor. Grüner can set at our site to about 16 tons per acre, which is insane. We thin it out and drop fruit, and even with that we get six tons per acre in the end. We’re left with much better fruit.”
He also deploys Scott Henry for the fruit he uses with his method champenoise sparkling wine program. “We’ve found it delivers great acidity, and allows us to harvest our Pinot Noir at a lower alcohol with subtle flavor development,” Shull explains.
Dave Weimann, vineyard manager at Sheldrake Point Winery in New York’s Finger Lakes region, also uses Scott Henry when vines get “too big for their britches.”
He says, “I became aware of the Scott Henry system in 1992 when I was working at Cornell [University]. But we didn’t start using it until 2002, after the vines we planted in 1997 became way too vigorous. We’ve found it works really well with Riesling, allowing us to find that sweet spot.”
About 14 of the 57 acres he has planted are on VSP, with the rest on Scott Henry.
Others, like Michael Moore, a Willamette Valley grower who uses Scott Henry at his vineyards Griffin Creek and Crater View, says it’s ideal for sites with “high water tables, too much vigor and too much green growth.”
Better Fruit, Lower Disease Pressure
Deploying Scott Henry in vigorous sites, especially ones that get a lot of rain or are planted above at a watery site, creates more acid-driven fruit with complex profiles, proponents say.
“We grow Pinot Noir for rosé at Corral Creek Vineyard using a Scott Henry trellising system,” says Chehalem Winery’s winemaker, Katie Santora. “We find that it helps us create acid-driven rosés with light and elegant aromatics. We always think of it as our lightest and prettiest wine.”
Moore says that Scott Henry is woefully misunderstood.
“It’s been misused for high-production wines,” Moore says. “But in the right circumstances, it produces much better fruit than you’d get using another trellis system. We have found that it lets us delay ripening, especially in warmer sites, which gives us better fruit in the end.”
At Lakewood Vineyards in the Finger Lakes, vineyard manager David Stamp says that, in addition to creating better fruit and “carrying a larger crop load, Scott Henry has less disease pressure due to a naturally thinner canopy.
Weimann concurs that there’s “a lot less rot with Scott Henry.”
Bottom Line
Installing Scott Henry on a classic VSP trellis system costs next to nothing. “You just have to add a wire to your existing VSP system,” Weimann says. “But there is additional labor. You have to flick the shoots on the lower wire down right as they bloom, because they’re going to want to grow up. And if you don’t get them ahead of time, or you do it too soon, you create a lot of hand labor for yourself because you’re going to have to go in and force them down.”
That labor costs more, but he and others say the additional labor is more than balanced out by the superior, more bountiful fruit.
Scott Henry, clearly, is not a trellis system that will be effective in every situation. But in high-vigor, water-logged sites or in cases where growers aren’t finding the acid and delicate aromas they want, Scott Henry is worth considering, especially for certain varieties.
“If someone is growing Pinot Gris, they need the added yield of Scott Henry to cover their farming costs,” Bellinger says. “Chardonnay on Scott Henry can be both bountiful and high quality. Pinot Noir can do well on Scott Henry, particularly for sparkling wine or rosé, but there is a greater risk of overcropping Pinot Noir for still wine.”
At Warrior’s Rest vineyard, Bellinger says they thinned the upper canopy aggressively, but thinned the lower canopy lightly.
“We then picked the bottom canopy of the Pinot Noir for sparkling wine and rosé,” Bellinger explains. “So that fruit came off early, and for the rest of the season we had two canopies ripening just one fruit zone of crop. It was a neat way to get the benefits of the higher yields without compromising quality.”
And as far as Shull is concerned, we may see a lot more of it.
“Climate change is here,” Shull says. “With consistently warmer vintages, we’re considering converting more of our Pinot Noir to Scott Henry to slow down ripening and produce physiologically balanced fruit without putting on too much sugar. We’ll see.”
___________________________________________________________________
Kathleen Willcox
Kathleen Willcox writes about wine, food and culture from her home in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. She is keenly interested in sustainability issues, and the business of making ethical drinks and food. Her work appears regularly in Wine Searcher, Wine Enthusiast, Liquor.com and many other publications. Kathleen also co-authored a book called Hudson Valley Wine: A History of Taste & Terroir, which was published in 2017. Follow her wine explorations on Instagram at @kathleenwillcox
