Wine Diary
Binding, pruning & more repairs
Finally we have completed pruning under changeable, but recently truly vernal weather conditions! Now, we focus mainly on the repairs of the trellises. Also, every year, we exchange old or set new wooden posts at the end of vineyard rows, a very challenging task: those posts provide for the basic tension of the wire frames and must be driven deeply into the often rocky paragneiss soils, which is almost impossible to accomplish by mere muscle power.
Therefore we use a special kind of hammer attached to the tractor’s hydraulics that works with the gravity of special cubic weights. The weights are pulled up on rails with a cable and then dropped onto the posts. The force of gravity alone drives the posts deep into the ground. Then loose wires are re-tensioned.
In other vineyards we have already started with the binding: during pruning our people have chosen the best annual shoots and shortened them to the right length. They are still standing upright and will have to be curved in order to attach the tips to the wires. Thus, their upcoming new sprouts will grow towards the sun and maintain good spatial distribution.
