If I wanted to compare our vineyards growing cycle to a human’s lifecycle, this time of year would be the early teens years.. Julien and I are like the parents, training the vines to behave well and not freak out during bad weather.
Syrah grapes in June
The grapes are growing fast, and the shoots and leaves are growing even faster. So to train them to grow up and not out, we have had to attach the shoots to either a wooden post, or a wire trellis, depending on the type of vine. We have 3 types of vine-training systems in our vineyard: Gobelet (Goblet in English), Cordon Royat Simple, and Cordon Royat Double. The Gobelet is aptly named as the vines take the form of a goblet, growing up and around the wooden post. The Cordon Royat Simple is just the foot of the vine with one branch extending outward, and the Cordon Royat Double is T-shaped with branches extending out from both sides of the foot of the vine. Without going into too many technicalities, the gobelet is the oldest of the three training systems and is used on sloped, manually-worked vineyards, allowing people to easily walk around the vines. The other two training systems are good for flat land because all of the branches are more or less at the same height, allowing for even sun exposure and easy pruning and harvesting.
If we don’t attach the vines, the fruit would weigh down the shoots and drag them to the ground.
Syrah grapes in our La Roue vineyard- Gobelet training system
The gobelet vines are simply attached to a post, which is about the same height as me (5’5″). The vines are attached first in May in the middle of the post, and then again after they’ve grown more in June, to the top of . We use a biodegradable string to attach, just simply by carefully lifting the vines upward and tying a knot around them.
Then we have to go through each vines to pull excess leaves. This step is not always necessary, and some grapegrowers don’t do it, because it’s very labor intensive. This step isn’t overlooked at Domaine Julien Cécillon, however, where attention to detail and high quality wine are priorities. And where there is a little immigrant working for free ( me.)