New Vineyard Strategies Improve Wine Quality

By Philippe Pessereau
Director of Vineyard Operations

Through consistent refinement in our approach to farming and winemaking, we are heralding a new era of improved fruit and wine quality. Since our philosophy is based on the belief that fine wine is elaborated in the vineyard, we have embarked on new farming approaches since 2006.

We believe that healthy soils are the foundation for healthy vines. Since 2004, we are farming a portion of our acreage 100% biodynamically, enabling us to focus on the soil for vine fertility and resulting in a true expression of the terroir in the harvested fruit. Moreover, since vines farmed biodynamically grow in harmony with their site, they can be smaller in size. As a consequence, we have begun to increase plant density to favor vine competition at the root level and also to boost root exploration for minerals, nutrients and water at a deeper soil profile. These vines bear fewer clusters than in a lower density setting and thus produce fruit of more concentrated quality.

We are also modifying our vineyard architecture in terms of sun exposure. To mitigate heat impact on fruit exposed to afternoon sun, we are orientating vine rows to magnetic north whenever feasible. Therefore, clusters located on the afternoon side of the vineyard row are less exposed to direct sun impact.

When developing new vineyards, we design the blocks based on a soil map. Hence, we plant and establish new irrigation blocks according to soil type and texture. This allows for more uniform vine health within the block and ultimately for optimum fruit maturation and quality at harvest.