| So much goes into making a good bottle of wine. | | | | ten-bud canes, while the spur pruned vine |
| Besides the requisite rows of polished stainless | | | | achieves it with ten two-bud spurs. Sharp eyes |
| tanks and candle-lit chestnut-hooped barrels, there | | | | will notice that the above cane-pruned vine also |
| is the furrowed brow of the philosophical | | | | has one spur on each side, to provide next year's |
| winemaker and the vast, imposing backdrop of | | | | cane and spur. |
| the arched and pillared winery itself. Surely there | | | | |
| is little significance, and certainly less glamor, out in | | | | Why should this matter? Pruning style is usually |
| the muddy, dormant vineyard in winter? | | | | determined by varietal, region, and the |
| Winemakers joke about the most important tool | | | | preferences of the vineyard manager. Certain |
| of their trade. For some it is their nose, for some | | | | varietals may bear fruit more consistently when |
| a mop, and now, perhaps, it is even the ubiquitous | | | | cane pruned, especially those varietals which do |
| Blackberry, iPhone, or the like. For me, just ahead | | | | not have very fruitful basal buds – the first |
| of my bicycle, it is a pair of pruning shears. Mine | | | | bud on the shoot, which is always one of the two |
| are standard-issue Felco no. 2. I don't use them as | | | | or three buds left on a spur. Other varietals |
| frequently or as vigorously as I used to, but they | | | | perform better when spur pruned, and would yield |
| accompany me on critical trips to the vineyard. | | | | inconsistently on a cane. Vineyards in cooler |
| Pruning is not glamorous. It is done in unpleasant | | | | regions tend to lean more towards cane pruning, |
| weather, all day long, quite monotonously. It is not | | | | since it is a type of pruning that provides a |
| highly-paid work, and rarely garners public | | | | degree of insurance against wild swings in crop |
| attention like a pressing or a bottling might. Yet | | | | load by not relying solely on the fruitfulness of the |
| the well-executed art of the pruner lays the | | | | first two or three buds on a shoot. Those first |
| foundation for the production of all high-quality | | | | few buds are the first to form, and therefore are |
| wines. | | | | the most likely to have developed during cold |
| Left to its own devices, a grapevine will produce a | | | | weather, a challenge which can restrict their |
| tangle of shoots, in the hope that one or two will | | | | tendency to bear fruit. |
| find their way to the top of a tree and produce | | | | The cane vs. spur decision is also frequently a |
| some fruit there which may prove attractive to a | | | | matter of logistics. Spur pruning of any sort is |
| passing bird, thereby assuring the continuity of the | | | | generally easier to teach and practice, and |
| species. In brief, the goal of pruning (and | | | | requires less subjective decision-making on the |
| subsequent vine management) is to fool the vine | | | | part of the person wielding the shears. This can |
| into thinking that every one of its grape clusters | | | | be a relief to the vineyard manager looking for |
| is so ideally positioned, and therefore to pack | | | | absolute consistency in the vineyard, where the |
| every berry with maximum flavor for the | | | | varying pruning styles of individual workers does |
| fortunate bird. Pruning is also the first, and most | | | | not have any real impact on the shape of the |
| important, step in controlling yield, helping assure | | | | vines from row to row. |
| that the vine's limited resources are allocated to | | | | Cane pruning is often considered more of an art. |
| only as much fruit as can confidently achieve | | | | The pruner must look at the vine as a whole, |
| ripeness. | | | | select a new fruiting cane of adequate girth, |
| All pruning methods are some adaptation of either | | | | length, and position, make a cut to improve or |
| cane or spur pruning – two words which | | | | maintain the desired shape of the vine, then take |
| capture the somewhat punitive nature of the | | | | the added step of planning for the following year |
| task. Whether one is employing one of the many | | | | by leaving a renewal spur in a location that won't |
| common variations on the theme, including guyot, | | | | interfere with the shoots growing from the |
| bi-lateral cordon, lyre, Scott Henry, or simple | | | | fruiting cane, and that will maintain a low vine |
| head-pruning, one is still making use of either a | | | | head. A skilled pruner enjoys the challenges of |
| cane, or a spur to achieve the above goals of | | | | cane pruning, but when it is done badly it can |
| fruit-positioning and crop limitation. The obvious | | | | create a lot of extra work in the vineyard. |
| difference is that the spur pruning method makes | | | | The look of a cane pruned vineyard in early spring |
| use of several short sections of last-year's | | | | is unmistakable: light, airy, orderly and elegant. |
| growth to provide this year's fruiting wood, while | | | | |
| the cane pruning method employs one or two | | | | In part two I will explore how two neighboring |
| longer canes per vine. Thus, while both vines may | | | | vineyards employ different pruning tactics, and |
| have been pruned to, say, twenty buds per vine, | | | | why. |
| the cane-pruned vine achieves this with two | | | | |