Vineyard —
Why we prune late, and what it costs us
For six years we have pushed pruning at Sèrrone to late January. Every year someone asks whether that is wise. The short answer is no.
Late pruning delays budburst by eight to ten days. In a place where a late frost can still arrive in early April, those ten days are the only insurance we can afford.
We pay for it in labour: by January the canes have hardened, cutting is slower, and the team takes half a row longer than it would in December. Across three and a half hectares of bush vines that is about forty extra hours.
At Sèrrone we accept the cost because these are 1961 vines, and a frost on the shoot would not cost us a vintage — it would cost us a plant. On the young parcels, where replacing a vine is an afternoon’s work, we prune in December like everybody else.
The method is the same as always: Guyot everywhere except Sèrrone and Trìvio. No trials, no machines — secateurs, a hand saw, and one person deciding bud by bud.
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