At the beginning of Veraison (the change of berry colour and beginning of ripening) we need to thin out the clusters. Our Spätburgnder (Pinot Noir) in particular needs this measure as it is a fertile variety with a fruit setting that is normally too large for the production of premium quality grapes.

80KB	Charlotte and Erika are counting the clusters (bunches) on each shoot in order to remove the excess.
47KB	The picture on the left shows a typical Spätburgunder shoot. There are three clusters on this shoot at a similar stage of development. In keeping with the LINGENFELDER philosophy of producing full bodied and concentrated wines we need to remove some of these clusters in order to improve the development of the other. Only the lowest cluster will be kept as it will produce the best crop in the future.
37KB	The highest cluster has been removed and Charlotte is now removing the second cluster from the vine.
43KB	The two removed clusters.
45KB	The remaining cluster now has a better chance of development.