Like the mythical phoenix, the grapevine life cycle is one of death and rebirth. The rebirth of the phoenix commences with the bird rising from the ashes of its previous form. A grapevine’s rebirth comes with the push of a green shoot out of a hardened brown bud left on the skeletal remains of the previous year's growth.
A dormant grapevine in winter does indeed look like the plant’s skeleton. But protruding from the bark are pockets of life in hibernation. These protected buds of living tissue contain microscopic clusters, tendrils and leaves that the vine will “push” in the spring, utilizing stored carbohydrates from its root system. This stored energy allows the vine to bear enough leaves to jumpstart the engine of photosynthesis, which will take over and power the grapevine for the growing season. After harvest, before this engine turns off, the vine will once again squirrel away carbohydrates in the roots for winter storage, a battery on standby ready to power next year's budbreak, and the vine will go dormant once again.
It is truly amazing to see a healthy, vigorous, deep green grapevine in late summer, knowing that it came from such humble beginnings earlier that year when a casual observer in late winter could easily assume the plant was dead. This natural process, evolved over eons, is part of the magic of farming grapes.
The farming (or human) part comes to bear in pruning the grapevine in such a way as to create a balanced, healthy, and manageable system to produce a harvestable crop of quality grapes. As an industry, viticulture dates back to Roman times, and the way in which grapevines are pruned and trained has been developed over these thousands of years. At Kanzler Vineyards we use a system called cane pruning, in conjunction with a trellis architecture known as vertical shoot positioning. These techniques are optimized for premium viticulture, and allow the vines to produce a balanced crop on “fresh” wood every year.
While cane pruning is more specialized and time-consuming, this strategy is known to produce a more consistent, balanced crop while also being beneficial to the longevity of the vine itself. Specifically, cane pruning leaves much less “permanent” wood. By removing a large volume of growth every year, and minimizing the physical size and expanse of the vine, cane pruning allows grape clusters to be physically closer to the root system, meaning sap and water have a shorter distance to travel. Also, the more permanent wood a vine contains, the more entry points for disease and fungus that can damage the vine.
It takes 900 worker hours every winter to manually prune the vines on our 14.5 acres at Kanzler Estate, and tie them to our trellis system. But this crucial step quite literally lays the foundation for the year’s crop. It's an art to hand-prune in an accurate and efficient fashion. It also takes uncommon strength, endurance, and concentration, which we see every year in the crew. The saying is “Great wine is grown, not made,” and it's true. No premium winegrapes are grown on a vineyard that's not pruned properly.
ALEX KANZLER
Winemaker
