There are two types of pruning: gobelet style bush pruning, and pruning where the vines are attached to wires, or trellises (palissage).
The entire vineyard has gradually been restructured so as to transition from gobelets to trellised vines.
In 2012, 50 hectares of gobelets were changed over to trellises.
Benefits of trellises
- Mechanical effect: better resistance to wind (valuable in a family vineyard that is regularly exposed to the Mistral)
- Increased leaf area (by lifting the branches)
There must be a minimum of 60.000 m2 per hectare of leaf area for the grapes to fully ripen.
- Decreased pollarding (removal of top
growth): this only needs to be done once at the end of the season.
The basic principle is that we should try to give back to the vines what we take out, in the form of the grapes.
All of the Sumeire vineyards are therefore treated with organic or organo-mineral type fertilizer.
These fertilizers are authorized in the
minimum use of pesticides approach (agriculture
raisonnée). After pruning, the vine cuttings are shredded and returned to
the soil; this humus also helps to restore nutrients to the soil.