The pruning, the moment when the wines of the future are defined
Each and every one of the decisions made throughout the year regarding the care of the vineyard is decisive to obtain wines of the best quality, including the moment to carry out the pruning or the way in which it is carried out, which varies depending on the terrain or if the vineyard is arranged on a espalier or cup shaped, or if the vines are old, with greater strength to support a greater number of arms, or young.
The first step to obtaining great wines is to have healthy grapes at their right point of maturity. In the pruning, we prioritize that the sap of the plant benefits the grape and not so much its vegetation. For this, it is necessary to constantly and accurately guard and analyze each of the stages that plants and their production go through until harvest time.
The right time
In Bodegas Luzón and in the Jumilla PDO almost in general, the pruning is carried out when the harshest of winter has passed, in order to avoid frosts that can affect the vines and when the vegetative cycle of the plant is almost nil and every year, the meteorology itself warns us that the cycle begins again in harmony with nature.
The selection and trimming of the shoots and the buds that sprout from the trunk – always with the pruning shears – may later benefit the bunches from greater insolation and better ventilation. Thus, in addition to increasing its yield and the quality of its grapes, resistance to pests is also enhanced.
How does pruning influence the quality of the vineyard?
In its natural state, the vine is a climbing liana whose branches can reach up to 30 meters in length. Therefore, the objective of the pruning is to reduce the number and length of the shoots so that the plant produces fewer bunches and less plant matter in pursuit of the quality of these bunches, but with berries of more intense colors and more concentration of organoleptic compounds. In addition, pruning lengthens the life of the vine and ensures a harvest with balanced volumes.
In Jumilla, we prune our cup-shaped vineyards, which is the shape that the vine naturally adopts, without espaliers or stakes that modify its growth, carrying out a short pruning, leaving only a couple of buds, which would be each of the nodes provided by the branch, with the intention of limiting both the vegetative growth and that of the vine production itself, seeking, as we have said, the concentration of the clusters. This pruning system offers a good exposure of the bunches to solar radiation and thanks to this, they allow a high yield and a correct ripening of the grapes.
Always sustainable
At Bodegas Luzón, as one of the only 32 Spanish wineries with the “Wineries for Climate Protection” sustainability seal, we make the most of the waste we generate in the winery, including the shoots left over from pruning, which are crushed and They serve as an excellent fertilizer for the vineyards themselves, as established by the sustainability protocol of the demanding Wineries for Climate Protection.