Work in the Vineyard
| All the work done during the vine-growing steps are done to improve the quality of the grapes picked-up and to master the energy of the plants. We can discern different steps of the work in the vineyard: |
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The pruning is the most important work to leave space to the machines and to delete the useless branches. To split correctly the grapes, we keep two branches to hold the fruits (called double "guyot" pruning). This sharing-out reduces the risk of rot on grapes. Also, in April, we do a de-budding, it means that we eliminate some buds to master the yield and the number of branches. The less fruits and branches we have, the better the sap will feed them... |
| The thinning-out consists in removing useless branches from the plant to focus the sap on the fruits. |
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In July, we do a tying-up, which means that we maintain all the branches between wires. This leaves some space for the machines and allow the grapes to have a better sun exposure. |
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The topping and the trimming, done in June-July-August consist in cutting too long branches to reduce the energy of the plant and to leave space to the machines. Also it avoids that all the sap goes into the leaves instead of the fruits. |
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Between mid-July and mid-August, we do a thinning-out to remove all the leaves which hide the grapes from the sun. The result is a better exposure to sun for maturation and a reduction of humidity around grapes which means less diseases. The last point is that the picking-up is easier once the leaves have been removed. To improve the quality of the harvest, we get off some green grapes to point the energy of the plant on the grape remaining. Then the grapes are perfectly ripe. |
