Through Langon editorial staff
Published on 30 Jan 21 at 17:26
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” The vine is a bonsai, if you don’t cut it, it would give 8 meters of wood per year! It must be stunted! ” Alexandra Martet, of château Lavison, at Loubens (Gironde), is on the forehead. Because here, as in all wine regions, we do not joke with the size of the vine.
Objective: limit growth and ensure the production of raisins quality.
Up to 1,000 plants pruned per day
It is a meticulous, technical operation, the most important because it is responsible as much for the sustainability of the vineyard that of the quality of the next harvest.
If the good pruning season is winter with the vegetation resting, for the tailors it is necessary to cover themselves warmly to resist humidity and frost; because it’s about being in shape and staying alert to what’s going on in the ranks. A good tailor attacks 1,000 feet a day!
Size is a period of memory
Equipped with shears now electric for greater maneuverability, Alexandra Martet has two objectives:
The first is to change the shape of the pocket vineyard and choose your wood pruning carefully “in order to force the plant to do what one wants”.
Here at Lavison castle, for 20 years, the method of Guyot double is is used: Alexandra Martet keep two arms of the vine; the force of the foot will be distributed over the pruning timber chosen with care, well aligned in the row in trellising to allow the mechanical tool, the cabaillon, to pass under the vines without touching the grapes, from August.
The second objective is to prepare the next harvest. The wood of the year which grew on a wood of the previous year are the most fruitful.
These woods called astes, will therefore be chosen as a priority especially if the spacing of buds allows sufficient ventilation to maturation grape.
Because it is their length which determines with the buds, 2,3,4 or 5, the number of grapes.
The winegrower and his vineyard
“A vineyard in good condition has good, well-experienced tailors. Alexandra particularly appreciates these beginnings of the year:
“The team of tailors follows the culture, works on its evolution according to the seasons. This is the condition for having very good wine. It is also a philosophy of global work. We are not stressed, the vines are dormant, it is a moment of fullness, a biological rhythm, which allows time to look at it, to observe it. “
AT Lavison, it is these same vine sculptors who supervise the vineyard throughout the year, from pruning to harvest.
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