Hayes Family Wines - Barossa in WINTER - Pruning - The Most Important Activity of the Year
Mandy Winter Pruning in Our Estate Vineyard
Winter in the Barossa Valley
With the Autumn now behind us, Winter descends on the Barossa Valley. Winter in the Barossa is ideally wet, cold and very unfriendly (unless you are by the fire with something nice in your glass!) Winter 2021 has been ideal with great winter rains filling the soil profile for the season ahead. For the vignerons of the Barossa Valley, our minds and effort turn to pruning.
Pruning is an annual activity where we remove the old canes and growth from the previous vintages and set up the vines for the vintages ahead. In its simplest terms, it is a “short back and sides” for the vines, however some vines require rework if they have been impacted by disease or the tough dry vintages of past seasons.
The vines are dormant over winter, so there’s no pain for them. Pruning is the most important activity of the year in the vineyard so it requires a very high level of skill. What we do over winter will impact not only the 2022 crop but the 2023 crop as well. Pruning impacts yield potential, quality and ultimately longevity of the vine itself. It is a job never to be underestimated or underappreciated.
Our Estate Vineyard is a mere 4.5ha in size. A handkerchief amongst the expansive vineyards of the Barossa Valley but all the vines are pruned by hand by Mandy Mader, a wonderful pruner. Mandy starts in July and normally finishes late August or early September.
Pruning
Pruning for us is a manual process, typically done with manual snips. Although each vine is different, and requires a different approach, at a high level there are 3 principal types of vines in the Valley which necessitate 3 different pruning techniques.
1) Bush Vines (Mataro and Grenache Blanc at our Estate Vineyard)
2) Permanent Arm (Grenache at our Estate Vineyard)
3) Rod & Spur (Shiraz at our Estate Vineyard)
Bush Vines
Estate Block 3 and Block 4 Mataro are trained as bush vines. Mataro has very strong rods that are free standing, and hence do not necessitate a trellis. We retain a catch wire should we have a big growth season but this has not happened for many years.
Permanent Arm
Our Estate Grenache Block 2, and the Field Blend Block 8 Grenache component are trained as permanent arm. Essentially rods are left over a number of years attached to the wire and principally spurred off, to facilitate the following year’s growth.
Rod & Spur
All our Estate Shiraz Blocks are Rod & Spur, where essentially you lay down 2 or 3 rods for each vine on the wire each year, and leave spurs, or short rods which will grow and be the basis for next years’ rods.
The Months Ahead
Once we, or at least Mandy, is done pruning the growing season will commence with Budburst, or the first new growth buds for the 2022 season. Exciting times ahead.