07-29-05 - Shear Suckering

We're having a heatwave...
A tropical heat wave....
The temperature's rising,
It isn't surprising,
We certainly can,
Can-can!

We are obviously thrilled that the long-needed warmth has finally settled in. You can see from the long tendrils the vine arms are creating that we are getting stupendous growth. It is at this point the vine's life that we want to quell that type of growth.

The vine would have the tendancy to expend all its energy into producing vines and leaves. We want its energy directed towards the grapes. A form of suckering is now done with large shears. The crew simply walk down the rows and hand-snip off the extended arms. The difference for us is that we do this by hand. If gone unchecked, the vines would simply continue untamed and the grapes would be lackluster and puny.

There are larger wineries that have amazing machines to do this job in a mechanized fashion. You can witness those when you visit the valley and see perfectly squared-off vineyards. The pruning machine drives down each row and shears off the vine arms that are protruding. What we end up seeing is a topiary of sorts; unnatural and perfect in their geometry.

What we see with our hand-pruned vines is a love of the vine and a care taken in the wine that will be. By doing this by hand, the crews can see which vines need to be taken care of -- not the butchering of the entire plant by mechanized monsters.