When we think of vineyards we most likely think of autumn and the harvesting of grapes, the making of the wine. That is the busiest time of year for both the vineyard and the winery, but it’s just the culmination. Whereas winter in the vineyard is possibly the most important time of year.
Shhh, They Are Sleeping
Winter is when the vines go dormant, go to sleep if you will, conserving energy for the next production of grapes. The sap retracks heading back into the roots as the temperatures drop. This is the time when viticulturists come in and prune back the vines.
They wait in the wings for the first cold temperatures or frost of winter and from that moment on until early spring you will find them busy getting vines ready for the next years harvest. Look at the picture above. Now realise how many individual vines you see. And this is just a small section of a vineyard. So you can see why we really need a few months to get all the pruning done.
What We Do Today…
Pruning is probably the most important thing one does in a vineyard as it impacts on your harvest directly. You see, the pruning you do this winter affects successive years, so not just this coming year, but the years after. So, yup, it’s important.
Think Bonsai tree and getting it to grow the way you want it to. This means clipping little bits off each year, training it to become the shape you want. That’s what it is like pruning a vine. You want it to grow the way you wish to give you the best fruit for the next year and its future.
Affecting Tomorrow
The state of vines can really vary. From the beautifully kept to the haven’t been pruned well in years. And it will show. It’s not about how tidy it is between the rows – where most people look. It’s about how well kept and thus healthy looking are the vines themselves. You can tell at a glance how well maintained a vineyard is.
Ideally what you want is a nice straight ‘trunk’ that would then have a ‘branch’ (or two, depending on method) extending sideways, along a wire, from which additional branches (canes) will extend, the ones bearing the grapes. It’s about working the vines into as close a proximity of the ideal as possible, knowing it may take years to actual achieve this.
How to Prune
So how do you prune a vine? If you are doing it by hand, we use vine pruning clippers. Secateurs if you prefer. Always kept as sharp as possible. Pruning is repetitive work, and if your blades are blunt you are making more work for yourself. It you have money and/or a big vineyard you ideally use powered clippers, much, much faster.
You are essentially cutting away last years growth and deciding what will grow for this next harvest. Grapes won’t grow on old canes (branches) so you have to cut most of those away in readiness for new canes to come through.
Confused cordon
In France, vines are trained via a cordon -that bit that goes along the wire and the canes grow up from. So each year, it is a question of choosing a healthy cane to become next years cordon. This cordon will then bud and create the vertical canes that the grapes grow on.
Confused? Look at your hand – your arm is the trunk of the vine, your palm is the cordon and your fingers the canes. The only difference is you want the cordon to be long (not palm size), as this is the part you want to extend along a wire (for support).
Tying Down
You then use a tying-down tool, which essentially twists a thin wire and then cuts it all in one movement, to attach the cordon to the horizontal wire. The wire gives it support for the coming growing season as grapes are surprisingly heavy. It also trains your vine where you want it to go.
Ideally you want your cordons to go all in one direction. This is so, as the canes and thus vines grow, they don’t overlap and overshadow each other. It’s all about spacing, giving air and space to the grapes so they can grow. However, in some AOCs the pruning method requires that the cordon change direction each year. So that sometimes gets added to the pruning mix.
Wiring up
Vineyard structure is made up of vertical posts and horizontal wires. Usually there are posts about every 2 metres or so. These will have a lower wire fastened to the post, through a U shaped nail, and then 2 wires above on either side of the post. These two additional wires can be raised up as the vines start to grow up, keeping the canes upright.
During the winter the top two wires are not necessary, so they are usually unhooked and let to fall on each side of the row of vines. The lower wire is the one we attach the cordon to. So picture an upside down L. The trunk of the vine extends upward vertically until it reaches the wire, which is about knee height. Then the chosen cordon is bent over and attached to the wire. Now the vine is ready for the coming spring and bud burst.
Winter break
It is actually quite fun work spending those short winter days doing something productive, albeit freezing whilst doing it. Oh, and completely back breaking. Vines are about knee height, so it means bending over throughout, or kneeling down at each vine. And there are certainly days when it feels never ending.
But this is also a time of great peace in the vineyard. It’s quiet work, unless you prefer to work with a partner and chat. It’s rhythmic too, so almost meditative in style. The scenery can be stunning and you often have it all to yourself.
Here’s a great video by Wines of Burgundy showing technical details (along with lovely videography) on managing vines if you wish to understand more.
More about seasonal work in the vineyard:
Celebrating the end of Grape Harvest : Fete de Vendange (October)
Be wary of early frosts : Bud Burst Busted by Frost (March)
If you would like to learn more about wine in general, check out my Wine 101 posts. And if you enjoy what you read, consider nourishing Pumpjack & Piddlewick‘s writings.
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As someone who has made wine here in France, and now guides around wineries and vineyards, I am always on the search for interesting and unique and particularly French wine items for My Shop. Here’s a taste of some of the things I have found:
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