Our tasks are based above all on the natural cycle of the vine. We begin the year after the harvest and vinification, since this is the plant’s dormant period.
With the first cold weather in November, the vines become dormant: the sap descends, the leaves fall. We check the secateurs and then begin the winter pruning, which will take several people a couple of weeks to complete.
The vine may be sleeping but, as well as winter pruning, wine-growers have to: – repair the trellising (each year, these work hard and have to withstand all the stresses and loads); – locate any dead vines, pull them up, prepare the soil and then replant; – see what nutrients are needed to supplement any deficiencies in the soil (we only use organic matter).
This keeps us busy throughout the winter. Then, beginning in March we have to: – bend the bearing branches and attach them to the bottom trellising; – work the soil; – then desucker (remove all the unwanted buds); generally carried out in late April/early May, this task is the least favourite since it is back-breaking…
May is a busy time for the plants and for the wine growers as well… Very often, the teams need extra people for the trellising work, a meticulous task that must be repeated until mid-July.
And at the same time there are a multitude of other tasks such as applying treatments (sulphur, copper) to protect the plants from disease (eg mildew, powdery mildew), clipping, pruning (topping, since the vine grows extremely rapidly), and so on.
Yet wine ageing is not a single isolated task. Throughout the year we have to top up the barrels every week (volume is continually lost through evaporation, fermentation, tasting), check the various wine-making stages, rack off the wines, prepare for bottling, then bottle the wines, prepare the orders, etc…
As craftspeople we need to be versatile. The rhythm of our days is dictated by nature.