While the vine is dormant…
As soon as the leaves have finished falling, we are out pruning until the end of January.Then we tie the grape-bearing branches (the ”baguettes”) to the trellises and replace the dead vines, thus completing the winter tasks.

Budding signals the start of a very busy time.
Over several months we remove excess growth (unwanted buds), guide the vines along the trellises, mow, work the soil mechanically and protect the vines from diseases.
All these tasks require a lot of time and care. They enable us to the control the yield and improve the exposure and aeration of the grapes.
Usually, from the beginning of August we do no further work on the vines until harvest-time.  At this stage we have done our best to help the vines produce good grapes. The ripening process, subject to the hazards of the weather, must follow its own quiet course.