Back in Margon after a few weeks back in the UK, it was good to see family and friends again over Christmas. It was good to hear of many of them enjoying Mas Coutelou wines with their Christmas meals.
Santa was generous so I have new books to read. Hopefully I shall learn something to help brighten and enlighten this blog.
Jeff assured me that last week the temperature in the Languedoc reached 20C and he was working in the vineyards in shirtsleeves. Sadly, no sign of that this week.
The vines are resting through the winter weather as you can see in these photos taken in Aloxe Corton on Sunday morning. Burgundy, of course, is much further north than Margon.
As we went for a walk in the vines (as opposed to a march in the vines) the pruning work I described in December showed clearly. Below are examples of all 3 types of pruning I described then.
Guyot trained vines. The long right branch attached to the wire will provide grapes in 2015. The cut branch will provide fruit in 2016.
I came across these cordon trained vines which are clearly older and very sturdy. They will need further pruning!
And finally we saw this really wizzened and elderly vine growing in classic Languedoc gobelet style.
So the vines are resting but I know that work for the vigneron is continuing. More pruning, assembling the wines from last year’s harvest and more vineyard work which I shall report back upon later in the week.
amarchinthevines 