Cave de Sauveterre-Blasimon - Vignerons de Bordeaux - Téléphone : 05 56 61 55 21

After pulling out the wood from the vines, the moment of going over the support framework arrives. The words in French ‘caraconnage' and ‘sécaillage' for this process are words that are not found in any dictionary but are specific to the language of vine growers. In the first place one verifies that the anchorage of the row is secure, this is a metal plate which is screwed in at a depth of one metre and attached to the first stake of the row. One then goes along the row shaking the stakes to find any which might be damaged or broken or simply old stakes which will not be able to hold up for another season. The hooked nails which are missing are replaced. The metal wires are repaired and replaced where necessary. It can occur that they are unintentionally damaged during the pruning. Then the metal wires are reset by putting them under tension and the damaged or broken stakes are replaced. The work is terminated by clearing the plot of old stakes and dead vine stumps. It is self understood that the older the plot of vines, the more attention needs to be paid to the upkeep. The advent of metal stakes has considerably reduced the amount of work as there are no longer hook-nails to hammer in as these stakes have notches into which the metal wires are threaded. The slight inconvenience with the metal stakes is that they shine brightly in the sunlight during the first years and so doing somewhat detract from the traditional aspect of the vineyard.