Pruning in Hautes-Côtes de Nuits

Pruning the vine is obligatory, it is this which allows fruiting. You should know that the vine is a liana whose goal is to colonize the maximum amount of space in a minimum of time; for it, fruiting is only an acknowledgment of failure. It is only when it realizes that it cannot grow as much as it wants that the vine decides to make grapes in the hope that the seeds inside the log will be scattered by birds or animals in their droppings. Unfortunately for her, we harvest the grapes before the seeds have spread…

Every winter, we find ourselves with pruning shears in hand for hours, days, nay, months of pruning in order to avoid the unlimited development of this vine that is the vine.

At Domaine Patrick Hudelot, we start at the beginning of January and we generally finish at the end of March because an old proverb says "Prune early, prune late, nothing beats the pruning of Mars"... Unfortunately the vineyard area of the Domaine does not allow us to do everything prune in March but what should we take from this proverb? Simply that it is preferable to prune while the sap of the vine begins to rise in the trunk in order to prevent fungi or mold from penetrating the trunk during pruning wounds because they are repelled by the sap.

Assisted pruning arrived in the 1980s first with pneumatic pruning shears then with hydraulic pruning shears which remains quite unusual. Today, many winegrowers have adopted battery-powered electronic pruners. We have a system of hydraulic pruners because we believe that the cutting power allows us high quality work and satisfactory working comfort, especially when we think of our grandparents who only used manual pruners. The only drawback remains the hydraulic power plant which operates thanks to a motor on a small, somewhat noisy mobile machine.

Jean-Michel and Stéphane have worked on the Domaine for many years, they are the ones who prune all of the 22 hectares of vines that make up Domaine Patrick Hudelot.