Zen pruning in Tulbagh 2 August 2005

Chris Mullineux considers both pruner and prunee

The moon is waning, our vines are fully dormant, and we have aching hands. We’re also feeling very Zen here at Tulbagh Mountain Vineyards.

That’s right, it’s pruning time in the Cape.

I firstly want to say that more people should get out and prune. It’s really good for you. Apart from the fresh air and contact with nature, pruning is great for mental health. Like walking the set path of a labyrinth, the simple, repetitive decisions lead your thoughts away, taking you past what’s happening in the news, through the last few weeks of your life, all the way to your subconscious. There you get the relatively rare chance to interact with what’s really happening in your head.

Though a meeting with one’s ego – we’re talking Freud’s version here, not what gets stroked by compliments on one’s superb pruning – might be a bit daunting to those with closets bursting with skeletons, many great insights happen at these times. It’s a great way to cleanse the mind and soul, and you come home at the end of each day feeling truly refreshed.

Turning our attention away from the benefits to the pruner though, what about the prunee? Why do viticulturalists put so much time and effort into the vine at this time? We certainly don’t send our farm workers through the vineyards solely to get in touch with their inner selves!

The reasons are many, and are all super central to viticulture.

Pruning firstly determines vine shape. Vine shape is extremely important for the optimal distribution of the canopy in the growth season. This helps with better aeration and light penetration, which in turn affect grape quality and disease susceptibility. If you get the pruning wrong, you end up with an overly dense canopy, and spend hours and hours suckering off excess shoots and leaves in summer. You can conversely have problems with sunburn or wind damage if the vines were pruned too harshly.

The balance between vigour and capacity are also determined at pruning. If you leave too many fertile buds, you end up with super high yields, but inadequate canopy to optimally ripen the grapes, as the vines spend all their energy on flowering and veraison, and have no time to develop enough leaves to ripen them! On the other hand, leaving too few fertile buds will give you the low yields everybody strives for, but without enough bunches to flower, set and ripen, the vines get into a vigorous vegetative cycle, and you end up with overly long canes with many massive leaves, and grapes with loads of sugar but not much flavor.

It all sounds complicated, but is not. It’s simply about creating a balance. And what better way to achieve balance than with workers who are already at one with their selves… those who are feeling Zen? This self-fulfillment is what I love about working with Nature – the feeling of harmony it brings when done with the right reason in your heart.