Cave de Sauveterre - Vignerons de Bordeaux

Co-planting or planting with and amongst existing vines is an operation to replace dead vines in a vineyard in order to maintain a homogenous vine. In another connection, the requirements of the AOC Bordeaux (guaranteed vintage) oblige us to have less than 20% missing vines. Also, to maintain a maximal production density we conduct this work of replacing dead vine stumps at the beginning of spring:

- either by a layered branch, this method consists of burying a long cane (‘sarment') which grows off the end of a branch of a neighbouring vine, which is completely healthy. This branch will be cut after two or three years to avoid exhausting the mother vine,

- or by the planting of a young vine bought from a nursery. The establishment of this young plant can prove to be difficult due to the severe competition with older established adjacent vines.