From the month of April on, the days get longer and as the vines grow, viticultural work intensifies until Summer.

• Phyto-sanitary treatment
  Grapes being especially sensitive to cryptogamic diseases, we must be particularly attentive to their sanitary state. We practice throughout sustainable agriculture. Phytosanitary treatment is performed only if primary contaminants are observed on the grapes. The same approach is used for insecticides.

• Mechanical Soil Maintenance
  During spring and summer, soil upkeep continues (earthing-up, disking, scraping). In some parcels where the vine plants have become too strong we grow grass to curb them; the grass is mowed and between the plants we use a grape hoe.
  

• Green operations

  Suckering, de-stemming
  These operations consist in removing all undesirable shoots (double branches), in order to contain vegetative growth.

  Lifting
  Lifting consists in running all the branches along the trellis wires for maximum leaf spread.

  Suckering, leave-thinning
  (First side, sunrise in June-July / Second side in September) Leave-thinning consists in removal of the oldest leaves situated at the level of the fruit-bearing area. This enhances grape respiration and sunlight exposure for optimal maturation.

  Green Harvest
  During the summer and after veraison, the excess grapes are removed from the plants.

  Topping, trimming operations
  These operations consist in cutting the highest buds of the top branches to limit their growth and move the sap towards the flower heads.
  

Once these operations have been performed, we still need to wait for proper maturation and healthy development of Botrytis cinerea. For us a new campaign has begun.