What is Early Leaf Removal?

Late last year, after harvest, my husband forwarded me this link that appeared in Wines & Grape U, Early season grapevine canopy management, Part II: Early leaf removal (ELR) that explains the benefits of leaf removal around bloom. It is now time to revisit this article.
From taking the U.C. Davis online course, I was familiar with the advantages of leaf removal. I was, however, unaware of the timing and the removal of certain leaves as well as the advantages of the canopy management system called early leaf removal.
Leaf removal is an adjustment of total vine leaf area and affects the relationship between photosynthetically active leaf area and yield and can lead to:

• Improved the cluster microclimate
• Additional sunlight penetration
• Higher temperature in the cluster

What is early leaf removal (ELR)? At the moment, ELR is still considered an experimental canopy management technique for crop control of highly-fruitful varieties. ELR is the removal of basal leaves of the main shoots and, optionally, lateral shoots developed from the basal nodes. ELR is typically performed shortly before (pre-bloom) or at the beginning of bloom.¹

Early leaf removal is still an experimental technique for highly-fruitful varieties. The next blogpost will deal with the pros and cons of using this technique during pre-bloom to bloom.
Back to disbudding work for us. Nearly finished with that task!
References:
1. Maria Smith and Dr. Michela Centinari, Early season grapevine canopy management, Part II: Early leaf removal (ELR), Dept. of Plant Science,
2. Tommaso Frioni, Shijian Zhuang, Alberto Palliotti, Paolo Sivilotti, Rachele Falchi, Paolo Sabbatini, "Leaf Removal and Cluster Thinning Efficiencies Are Highly Modulated by Environmental Conditions in Cool Climate Viticulture", Am J Enol Vitic., March 2017.