Sunlight into Wine by Richard Smart

One of the highly recommended books for a newbie Viticulturalist is this book written by Richard Smart and Mike Robinson originally published in 1991, nearly 25 years ago, called Sunlight into Wine. It is manageable reading, full of photographs and spiral bound, which makes this book easy to lay on a table (little things can be a huge plus). One of the questions that this book answers is "Does a vine need to be struggling to make good wine?" The answer is right up front: Research in New Zealand has shown that dense, shaded canopies reduces wine quality.
This idea must have been very revolutionary back in 1991. The concept of canopy management and it's benefits is explained. Canopy management includes:

• Winter pruning
• Shoot thinning or desuckering
• Summer pruning
• Shoot devigoration
• Shoot positioning
• Leaf removal
• Trellis system

Without proper canopy management, vineyards can succumb to excessive shoot vigor. High vigor creates a vicious cycle which was explained and illustrated with these two diagrams:

Excessive shade associated with high vigor vineyards affects the ability of the vine to produce fruit, this lack of fruit production encourages vegetative growth, which further depresses the ability of the vine to produce fruit.

The vicious cycle of vegetative growth can be broken if shade in the canopy is reduced. Light in the canopy favors the initiation of inflorescence primordia and the production of fruit acts to balance shoot growth. Proper canopy management is one key to getting fruitful vines.