The Work of the Vine

The Attachage or Tying

In order to order the vine, one proceeds to the attachage of the frames and the nodes (or drink of size) on apparatuses of support while taking part in working of the vine.
Tying is practised about April. Then the reheating of the atmosphere will give again life with the buds which had been formed the year before. Those go then inflated; that marks the beginning of the development of the bud and the vegetation : this stage is called débourrement.
Foliation, it is the development of the sheets whose role is capital for the life of the plant. It is accompanied by the growth of the branch which can reach 5 cm per day in hot and wet period.
One starts then observed contrary to the sheets, but in a discontinuous way, the growth of the gimlets, allowing the vine to cling to supports, and inflorescences or floral buttons joined together in all small bouquets which will become then bunches of grapes.
These inflorescences precede harvest. One finds 2 per growth normally of them. It is around June that the flowering will intervene which ends in fecundation. The development of the bud makes detach the cap of its base and is then rejected by cheesecloth which is rectified and from which pollen comes to fertilize the ovary.
So that fecundation proceeds well, one needs sun and temperatures from approximately 20 with 25°C it is conceived that this period is one critical period during which one should not disturb the vine.

The Palissage

In the months of June and July the grapevine grows very rapidly, in order to care for it, the wine-grower’s work is to line up twigs in the maintenance threads and to air them to get a good fertilization. Besides the work will constitute to put staples in the middle of each gaps and to remove the ailerons or interheart, allowing to provide the fruits more sap and to improve the quality.
The tightness is closely link to the fertilization. This stage is the ovary’s transformation into grape. At first the grapes stay green and like the leaf containing chlorophyll, assimilating and breathing. Their volume and their weight rapidly increase and reach the size of a small pea. The ovuls then become pip.
The veraison is an important moment because in fact this marks the beginning of the grape’s coloring, a new growth and it’s maturing. The sugars increase and the fruit’s acidity drops. The maturing will continue until harvest time and through the end of the active period of the reproductive cycle. At this stage, the grapes color maintain while the sugars continue to increase and the acid decreases.