A Shave and a Haircut

Stylin’ in the Yards

About now, before the nets go on, as veraison is upon us, we spruce up our vines with an immaculate trim. Short back and sides.

This is not from some weird Teutonic desire for order and precision, but for sounder reasons than that. Untended, vines have ambitions to take over the world, and grow willy nilly in riotous profusion.

Instead we curb their enthusiasm with a dapper clip, and thus encourage them to get on with concentrating on the business of ripening and fully developing their grapes. Still, they do look rather ... cool. And not in a Pyongyang Mayday Parade sort of way.

Speaking of vine tending, each vine is personally cared for by hand at least fourteen times per year, from pruning to picking. Pinot is all about hand-tended grapes. Consider that when next you pay for a bottle of the good stuff. An awful lot of hard work has gone into making that bottle as good as it is.