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A tale is told in the country that one day a rather indelicate donkey thoroughly enjoyed the small branches of a vine. His master, greatly annoyed, would have earnestly left the rest to him, believing that his next year's harvest was jeopardized. The following summer he had a pleasant surprise and harvested beautiful and very sweet grapes. This story depicts very simply the principal of pruning: severely prune the growth of the year to obtain rich and sweet grapes.
With the wine harvest behind them, the vine growers already anticipate the vintage of 2009. For that, once the leaves have fallen, the work of pruning begins. This is a task which dictates the rhythm of their days until the following spring. They choose one or two branches on each vine, those which are most likely to bear the best fruit. The rest of the vegetation is cut away.

a1) The methods of pruning.

The pruning method used in this region is called Guyot, the name of its inventor. One differentiates between two varieties of this method:

- Pruning using the simple method of Guyot consists of leaving one branch (aste) and one stump of a branch cut back to two bud marks (yeux).
- Pruning using the double method. In this case two branches and two stumps are left.
Pruning has three main objectives: to shape the vine, control the growth of the following year and to obtain a certain amount of high quality grapes. In fact if one did not prune the vine it would not be possible to attach it to the wires and it would produce a large number of very small grapes, neither sufficiently sweet nor coloured.

a2) The pruning periods.

The vine rests throughout the winter and at this time it is necessary to act.

Certain vine growers prefer starting very early in order to have finished by March and the budding of the vine. In fact, when the branches are cut in spring, at the time when the sap is resurging, this runs out of each ‘wound' and in consequence tires the vine and stresses it in this time of awakening.

Other vine growers, however, follow the old adage ‘Prune early, prune late: nothing is as good as pruning in March'. They wait to prune the majority of their vineyards until February-March, in order to retard the start of growth and to limit the risk of damage from a spring frost. This practice also has the advantage of limiting illnesses of the wood. These illnesses, which cause the death of a vine, are due to fungi whose spore set themselves onto the open cut and migrate into the vine and progressively obstruct the vessels. If the vine is pruned at the beginning of budding, one says that ‘the vine cries'. The sap runs a little every time one cuts a branch and expels the spore of fungi, so diminishing the risk of illness.

In practice, every vine grower adapts his methods to his plots of land, his soil, and also according to what type of vine he is cultivating. Certain types, such as the Cabernet Sauvignon or Sauvignon are more susceptible to illnesses of wood and often pruned late.
But if you have some of your own vines to prune, do not worry. At the beginning of winter or in the spring, the vine is not a capricious plant and can bear being pruned over a large period of time. And as far as the branches to be cut, do not worry either, as the vine can be pruned in a very severe manner and the fruit will be even more beautiful.

a3) Pruning a young vine.

When a young vine is planted, in the first winter only leave the first two shoots. You will obtain a more vigorous growth than by leaving a number of weak twigs. In the spring and the following summer remove the suckers from the base and only keep the strongest branch. The following winter, prune to the height at which you wish to cultivate the vine. In the following years prune normally and leave one branch of fruit.

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