Business Pruning

On the either side of the hill, as Joe the Wino cut canes, he thought of pruning his company. Too much dead wood. Weed out the lower-performing 10% to make the company more vigorous. Off with their heads! If only cutting staff was as easy as vines – thank goodness I’ve got HR for that. Snip. Cut. Prune. Bend. Shape the vine. Strengthen the organization. Joe was a builder of businesses, a job creator. But the goddamned President has been a job killer bad for the country. Thank goodness his time is up next year.

Strange Fruit

“... he speedily cut down an entire row with loppers, without pausing to pull down canes dangling from the wires, left blowing in the wind, swinging like chimes, sounding dull thuds when colliding. He looked down the row, reflecting on Billie Holiday’s melancholy:

California vines bear strange fruit
Sap on the wood and sap at the root
Gophers swinging in the ocean breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the vineyard trees.”

A Masterpiece: A Perfect Row of Vines

In the six years we've been writing about winemaking then grape growing these pages have recounted countless mistakes, obstacles and disasters which is to be expected as I have no natural ability to succeed at such endeavors as make wine or farm land. But as I tied and primed a row of newer Aglianico vines on Sunday I observed something I've rarely seen before and certainly never recounted on these pages: a row of perfect vines. Well balanced, with good plumbing. Well formed, with no mildew nor mold. These are vines we did by the book. After the first year, we pruned them back to two buds just above the ground, so that last year they sent out strong shoots we could lay down as cordons. In this particular row, we decided to train one arm, a single cordon, for straight plumbing. As these vines enter their third year now, they are picture perfect. A success story. A masterpiece. Next quest: the perfect glass of wine. On that score, I was inspired this week by Andrew Lloyd Weber. I'm dreaming of creating a "Phantom" wine, whomsoever drinks of it will experience the full power of a love that never dies. Would you share a glass?

Pruning Primer

There have been a few distractions these winter months highlighted by the Winos’ Inaugural Ball, the Gopher Wars, running into the Law in Texas and numerous wine tastings for vineyardistas. Concurrently, silently, the vines have been storing water and nutrients and pushing this life force fluid up their trunks and out their cordon arms bursting buds and sending forth new shoots. Spring is here and it’s back to the vineyard.

We started pruning on the last Saturday in January and finished on Saturday February 14^th, Valentine’s Day, and I gave the Queen who runs this place and who did her fair share of the pruning (which required my fair share of redoing) a bouquet of “cuttings” – grape stick canes which placed into the ground will sprout new vines if given a little water. And a little water we had. As we pruned, winter returned and we were hailed on, sleeted on, rained on and I had not been this wet since I was a student at the University of Washington in Seattle and biked to school. The wines were quite happy and you could see them swell before your eyes and when you cut with the shears tears flowed through the xylem dripping on the vine, the ground and coagulating around the wound. The ground was wet and we dug holes and placed Nova Vines dormant, bench grafted Tempranillo on 101-14 root stock into the wet clay, planting each one carefully as a rose, first building a mound under the roots, then spreading the roots. I miscalculated the number of vines needed and we thrust a few of the hard cuttings straight into mother earth. (It will be interesting to see which grows better – the cuttings or the grafted vines on rootstock. Phylloxera is not a problem here so cuttings may have their advantage, unless you’re trying to inhibit vigor of a vigorous vine. However, vineyard consultant Frank Bons has observed some vines on their natural root stock cannot handle stress as well as grafted vines.) I made a couple of clay mud pies– which I hadn’t done since I was a kid in North Carolina—and sculpted smooth, red berms around the rims of the holes.

We in Southern California have finished our pruning while you in the wintry north may still face the task. We made many mistakes our first year pruning, which we avoided this year. Fortunately, vines are almost as forgiving as a Saint and survived our mistakes.

Pruning is one of the most important activities in the vineyard … you are making decisions which will impact your yield and also maintenance. How many buds to leave? How much space to leave between spurs? Do I need to replace this cordon? Which canes to keep? And, in the case of new vines (which we have at the Blue-Merle Vineyard) you are making decisions about the shape and structure of the vine. As one of the missions of Winemaker’s Journal is to openly share my mistakes so you may avoid them, the rest of this is intended for the would-be grape grower. (Besides, Joe the Wino is on vacation in Cabo San Lucas so there's nothing interesting to write about him this week. Next week, Joe and the Cast will be back for the premier of Survivor: Vineyard Edition.)


The most important thing to remember about pruning vines is that next year’s grapes come from last year’s new shoots.

Pruning: End of First Year

There are three common scenarios you will face when pruning vines during the winter after the first year when developing a cordon system:

1) Cutting the vine back to two buds (from the bottom). In effect, starting over. Doing this ensures a very strong trunk the next year, and therefore, a healthy vine.

2) Bending the vine over, if you have a single-arm cordon system, and cutting the arm at the beginning of the next vine. (We have several hundred vines on 3-ft. spacing with single arm cordons). This should only be done when:

a.The trunk is strong
b.The arm is at least as thick as a pencil
The bending of the vine can take place at the end of the growing season, if the vine has reached beyond the top of the trellis system and can be bent over without breaking. (Note, new shoots can be fragile, which you’ll find out very quickly after you’ve broken a few!)

3) Topping the vine just below the cordon wire to encourage growth of two arms (or one arm if you have a “one arm” cordon system). Be sure and top "below" the wire, which makes it easier to train the shoots which will become the cordon.

An unlikely scenario is that you have a vigorous vine which has grown so much, and by chance, there are two strong shoots going in opposite direction to make a cordon. (This occurred about 7% of the time with our vines which had vigorous root stocks.) So, we kept what nature had given us. (Check in next year to see what happened.)

In the case of “head pruning”, what you do the first year depends on your objectives. You may cut back to two buds if growth has not been vigorous. If you’ve had good growth, you may decide to cut back to the level of the base height you desire for the vine. For example, 2 ft. or 3ft. off of the ground, depending on your objectives.

Common Mistakes for the Novice:

* Not cutting back to two buds when there has not been enough growth.

* Not topping the vine at the top, in a feeble attempt to make a cordon when there has not been enough growth.

* Pruning the vine “above” the cordon wire instead of below. (It’s easier to form a cordon when the shoots are coming up from below. We broke many shoots a year ago when trying to form a cordon because we pruned above the wire. Ouch!)

*Bending over the vines during the summer of the first year in a bi-lateral cordon system, resulting in strong growth on one cordon arm and a very weak other arm. (You will end up cutting off the weak arm anyhow, so save yourself the trouble by topping the vine when pruning the first year.)

Helpful hints:

When pruning the end of a vine, cut it through the node (to prevent growth).

When bending a cane (a cane is a one year old shoot which doesn’t have “wood” on it), take both hands and place them by the point of the bend to gently “crack” the cane between the nodes. This will avoid breaking the cane when bending it.

If you need to propagate a new vine, you can bend a shoot over into the ground to start a new vine (as opposed to planting a baby vine in case a new one is unavailable).

Seeding a “cover crop” between rows is recommended.

Pruning 2^nd Year Vines

If starting the year from two buds, refer to end of first year above.

If starting the year with a single trunk at the top of the wire then you may be:

Selecting the best cordon, from two or more possibilities.

Pruning “bull canes”

Creating some “spurs”

Where there has not been enough growth for a spur, pruning back to single buds along the cordon wire.

Where you have “wood” from first year growth:

Creating “spurs”

Leaving “spurs” at the desired distance

In the case of head pruning, this would be similar to pruning a rose bush – but leaving buds so grapes may be harvested in year three.

Cane Pruning is a technique where there is not a permanent cordon – you bend down a renewal cane each year on the fruiting wire to bear fruit.

At the Blue-Merle Vineyard there were approximately 900 2^nd year vines and 250 first year vines to prune. When pruning, we sterilized our pruning shears after each vine in a mixture of Clorox and water.

To save time, we left the cuttings in the trellis system, allowing us to move more quickly between vines. Because of the warm winter we had, there was much fluid in the vines, which “bled” after we cut them, in some cases quite a lot. The canes that we left to “hang” dripped sap on the cordon arms below.

Because important pruning decisions are made with young vines, our goal is to “think twice and cut once.”

It is clear that our Aglianico vines – on a more moderate root stock – are not ready for fruit this, our 3^rd year ("third leaf") – although we expect a crop from the Tempranillo, Grenache and Petit Sirah.

On Saturday, February 21^st, we sprayed the mildew prone vines with a mixture of dormant spray (main ingredient a pungent sulphur) and oil. We purchased this from Grangetto’s, and in small quantity, a permit is not required. The mixture is 4 oz of dormant spray and 1 oz of oil per gallon of water. With a 4-gallon back pack sprayer, that meant 16 oz of dormant spray (or ½ of the bottle) and 4 oz of “oil.” This must be applied when the vines are dormant, without green leaves. I was able to cover the whole vineyard with two rounds. The spray is highly caustic and extreme care must be taken to avoid contact with eyes and breathing. The technique is to “soak” the vines, and I found the mixture dripping off the cordon. The cost of 32 ounces of dormant spray and oil is about $12 each. To purchase in larger quantities (and at a lower price) requires a license.

Our neighbor Coyote Karen and ourselves have not been attacked (yet) by powdery mildew, and so we are not on rigorous spraying programs, yet. (We have good airflow and wide spacings between rows -- well most rows except for two or three.) Merlot Mike, on the other hand, is on a rigorous spraying program and is able to keep the fungus at bay. At Mike’s vineyard the vines are packed together, creating conditions ripe for mildew. But at the Blue-Merle, rows are widely spaced, and we have strong “drying” breezes coming off the Pacific. We are also thinning shoots to maintain adequate space (about 7 inches or the width of your hand when you make the "Hook 'em Horn" sign of the Texas Longhorns), so stay tuned to see how long we can go without spraying and if the shoot thinning creates a vigor problem. If it's not one thing with a vineyard, there's always another.

Pierre Seillan Visits Blue-Merle Vineyard, Offers Pruning Advice

Pierre Seillan, winemaster of Chateau Lassegue (St.-Emilion), Verite (Sonoma County), Chateau Vignot (St. Emilion) and Tuscany, toured the Blue-Merle Vineyard and offered these words of advice as we walked up the mountain inspecting the vines:

* [while pulling off the vine "suckers" just as I would] "You can pull these off." (Note: The Queen had forbid me to touch the vines and cut off suckers and extra growth. See, dear, me and Pierre have the the same idea!)

* "This is too long, you should cut it," he said about a cordon stretching out 3-feet in each direction. "It is too much work for the vine." (Note: Much of the Blue-Merle vineyard is on 6ft. spacing. Pierre recently planted a vineyard with 3 X 3 spacing in Sonoma (3 ft. between each vine, and 3-ft between rows). He limits the cordons to two spurs each, with 4 buds per spur. He says limiting the production is sustainable -- he doesn't need to fertilize. And, there's a new type of "tractor" that travels over the vines spaced 3 X 3.)

* I asked about our new plantings that are on 4ft. spacing ... "That is fine. " Should I use a single arm cordon or double arm? "You should have two arms; it creates better balance for the vine."

* About pruning the new vines in the winter: "You should cut them to the bottom, then let it grow up to the top wire of the trellis. Then, the next year you should cut it at the cordon. I like to make a strong trunk, and strong cordons." (Note: We had originally planed to encourage single, one-arm cordons on our new vines. But, we will follow Pierre's advice to develop a really strong trunck and cordon -- especially after having experienced the consequences of weak cordons from vines we did not prune properly this winter. And, as an attempt to create great tasting, "boutique" fruit which a large commercial vineyard could not afford to create.)

After the tour -- gazing at the sunset in the West and the moonrise in the East -- the Hidden Meadows Winemakers Association convened at Coyote Oaks Vineyard for a gourmet's dinner and tastings of several Pinot vintages. Said Pierre, "I call you the Epicureans." An encore champagne brunch of les Epicureans du pays du Merle-Blue was held at Sunrise Vineyard Sunday morning.

Pierre first visited the region several years ago as a young man in his 20s, when he planted a vineyard in nearby Temecula. Welcome back, Monsieur Pierre.

Earlier in the day, Pierre met with the San Diego Amateur Winemakers Association in 100 degree heat at the Arroyo Vineyard in Bonsall. When Pierre spoke about "le terroir" (the earth) expressing itself in the wines he produced it really touched a chord in my thoughts, as the Blue Merle (like Pierre's own vineyards) has distinct areas of land (some red clay, some decomposed granite, some silty soil, some inhospitable rock -- each with its own varietal) which will produce unique flavors -- which can only be found in the land of the Blue-Merle.

More Trouble: Training 2nd Year Vines

The vines have been in the ground for one year. We pruned as instructed this winter; a couple of inches above the cordon wire, in the expectation of taking new shoots from below the wire and fashioning even, strong cordons. Friends, if I were doing this again, I would watch out for pruning "above the wire", especially for vigorous vines. What happened is that the new growth came in significantly above the wire, and it's difficult to bend those puppies down without breaking them off. We're wondering if we just need to top the vines and start all over? (Note: A quick call to the consultant Frank: his advice: do not top the vines; if necessary, clip the vines shooting straight up; that should force new growth below the shoot, in a more horizontal direction.) The Queen is trying Japanese gardening techniques to slowly bend the fast growing, skyward bound shoots. The vineyard consultant suggested no need to "top off" the vines again, but to cut the shoots near the base, and the bud may send forth a new shoot. I was outside at 6a.m. this morning, attempting to bend some vines, but not having the Japanese touch, broke quite a few. Friends, this is not a happy day for us in crafting this vineyard. I remind myself: patience, patience, patience. Vineyard is art. Plenty of "hoot hoot hoot-hoot" sounds, but no sign of a visitor to our owl box yet. Jerry reports that the conditions are not yet ripe for mildew (something else to worry about). The gophers have been having a field day -- as I was out of town, and the weeds are on the counter attack. That damned plastic thread in the weed whacker is no fun at all to change. Send me the weekend, please!

(We found the Aglianico vines, which are on less vigorous root stock and much "thinner" than the Tempranillo vines which are on vigorous stock -- to be much easier to train. Thank goodness!)

(Note from May 15th -- The Tempranillo vines, on a vigorous, drought resistant rootstock, have been growing like crazy -- indeed, shoots that had been accidentally broken off have been replaced, and the gaps in cordons are filling in. Things are coming along well. Alas, the pruning advice we received was right on. And, an important lesson learned: The new shoots are coming in thick and healthy. In the winter, I hesitated to cut off the weaker 1st year cordons -- but now I see that in year 2, they can be replaced with a much stronger cordon, and so I'm cutting them off, in favor of the new growth.

(Note from December 11, 2008 -- The 2nd year vines grew fairly well, mostly. There were a few where we did break off some cordons, so there are some gaps. No worries though. We'll plant some more vines in between the gaps, with shorter cordons, which should yield better fruit. If you are planning to plant your own vineyard, study the variable on spacing. We're hearing that shorter cordons produce more intense fruit, and better tasting wines. We have about 250 first year vines that we'll be pruning and training in February 2009. This year, we have let them grow "wild" without any training at all -- not one cut. Pruning will be a challenge, but the stalks of these vines are healthier/thicker than last year's first year vines. When we "top" these vines in February, it will be just a bit above the cordon -- most of this year's vines we planted 4-feet apart.)