EVERY YEAR THE CULTIVATION CYCLE IS ESSENTIALLY THE SAME…..
The growing cycle of the vine (rest - bud burst – flowering – veraison - maturation) imposes on certain work on the vine which can be summarised as weeding, Double Guyot pruning, the fight against frost, treating, trimming and the grape harvest.

In Winter…
The vine is resting. The vinegrower carries out the ploughing, which today is often replaced by weeding. Then, he prunes the vine until March. On this subject, our ancestors said “Nothing is worth a March pruning”. But the vineyard areas increased, and manual work, it remains one and the same throughout the decades. This is why, when passing through the vineyards in winter, one sees here and there, small plumes of smoke rising from a type of wheelbarrow.

The vinegrower maintains the fire and burns the vine shoots which he has cut there. Leaving the shoots in the ground and crushing them would be like leaving all the parasites accumulated by the vegetation during the season in the ground. Pruning is an important job in training the vine. It determines the future yield and in addition, next year’s pruning. It’s a meticulous & time-consuming job which often has to be undertaken in difficult weather conditions. But this is the price paid to reap the reward from the harvest ! The most commonly used pruning method today is that of the Double Guyot which involves leaving around 20 eyes (future buds) per vine. As spring approaches, Calm and Tranquillity reign over the vineyard. This peaceful atmosphere is explained not only by the fact that pruning is completed gently, but also by the fact that the vinifications are finished and the new vintage is finally separated from its lees.

In Spring….
We note the flowering of the vine buds, this is the stage known as bud burst. This stage is very important in the vine cycle. However, in the Chablis region, the April frosts are renowned for their severity. In the past the temperature has even dropped as low as -12°. Luckily for the vine, these kinds of temperatures are fairly anecdotal with the average temperature being around -5°. Nevertheless, to protect against the risks of these very strong frosts, the Chablis vinegrowers have had to, year on year, develop an outfit of “Cold Soldiers”. Thus, at the beginning of April every year, the entire vineyard prepares itself for cold attacks, and the battlefields often prepare themselves using different methods. In a large part of the vineyard, you will certainly see hundreds of small fires which illuminate…and heat up the vines. But, alongside the Serein river, notably the course by Chablis Premier Cru Fourchaume (which connects Chablis to Maligny), the spraying technique is the most favourite method; which offers a unique, almost magical display !

With the frost period passed, we move onto training the vine (the main branches left after pruning are attached to the wire) and the treatment of the vine against diseases (like oidium, mildew). We then patiently await flowering of the vine. This is characterised by falling of the small floral caps (generally towards the end of May) which is followed by the setting of the vine (beginning of the enlargement of the berries)

After the middle of August….
The works on the vine finishes, only the trimming of the wild shoots remains. The ripening, which corresponds to the stopping of the growth of the vine, is shown by a change in the colour of the berries, they lose their herbaceous appearance and become more translucent. During this period an intense migration of sugars occurs whilst the acidity starts to decrease. The slow maturing of the berries is succeeded by the maturation stage during which the berry increases in size and the composition of the fruit changes via the accumulation of sugars and the reduction in acidity.

Towards mid-September…
The progress of the maturation is followed by regular removal of bunches of grapes, the analysis of which determine the harvesting permit.