Pre-pruning is the true sign of Spring

As I mentioned in my Twitter last week, we are pre-pruning the organic vineyards here at the ranch. Pre-pruning or winter pruning gives us the opportunity to tend to each vine and interact physically with each vine and see how it over wintered. It takes hours of labor in cold and wet weather. This year was no different, we experienced snow, thunder, rain and 50 degree days!

Many vineyards machine prune with a machine that consists of simple reciprocating cutters or flails. This is know as mechanical pre-pruning and is faster than hand pruning. However, it is not as accurate as hand pruning and results typically with a cane spur with 2 or more buds. This is called spur pruning.

What we are pruning to is a vine trimmed back leaving typically a longer bearer called a cane, typically including six to 15 buds. These longer canes tend to help manage bud break, especially in our variable spring climate. The buds on the ends of the canes may break early during a warm period. If this happens we have plenty to prune back during our spring pruning to create a uniform canopy and crop.

Here are some after and before shots of some Pinot Gris here at the organic vineyards.