Hardscrabble Journal

Historical Pruning

Pruning season is in full swing. It is the perfect time to evaluate and scrutinize vine performance. It takes about 50 hours to prune one acre of grapevines. We become intimate with the vines. We make plans for vintage 2020.

This is our second year of implementation of a new pruning system. New for us, but over one hundred years old for winegrowing. Unfortunately, La taille Guyot-Poussart is a mouthful, and we have yet to find a better term. It is a system of pruning developed in France in order to mitigate the problems of trunk diseases. It was abandoned for reasons unclear to me. In the last decade vineyards globally have seen a resurgence of these wood diseases, so some of us are exploring this “new” pruning system.

It is taking a while to understand. One of the reasons is that we need a couple of growing seasons to evaluate how each individual variety responds. So far, I’ve liked what we’ve seen. Young vines have responded well and are almost 100% converted. Older vines take more time and are not as accepting to change. One could anthropomorphize here.

This is what I love about winegrowing. Mankind has been growing wine grapes for thousands of years. Many great civilizations have put tremendous efforts into growing better wine. Modern man has a self-centered sense of superiority over past generations, but we can learn so much from the past.

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Two pages from Modifications à Apporter à la Taille de la Vigne des Charentes, Taille Guyot-Poussart Mixte et Double by René Lafon, a 1921 book on pruning explaining the “new” pruning method that we are adopting.

Source: gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliothèque municpale d’Angoulême

Linden Vineyards / Learn More / Latest at Linden | Journal: February 28 2020