Hard graft

I’ve been in Tuchan now for 25 years and last week I witnessed something I’ve never seen before – how to graft a vine.

Jean-Marc wanted to rejuvenate a neglected Syrah vineyard and the whole process was totally fascinating.  Back in December, Jean-Marc had booked up one of the few  ‘grafters’ in our area.  They are a Portuguese family and we were the first vineyard they were doing this season.   As there is a limited window in which you can graft vines they already had bookings for a further 30 000 vines over the next 6 weeks.  

However, when they arrived they almost turned around and went back home again as we had failed to dig out the earth around each vine.  Jean-Marc had hoped that given the recent rain this wouldn’t be a major task and the grafters could do it themselves.  But the soil had set like concrete - three pickaxes, a lot of muscle power and sweat later, Jean-Marc had to agree that he had been slightly optimistic.

Once the area around the root is cleared the grafter uses a powerful pair of secateurs to cut through the trunk of the vine. 

He then makes an incision and taps in two scions and binds them with raffia before covering the whole graft with soil.  This technique is called cleft grafting and the skill is not only in preparing the rootstock but also in whittling the scions so that there is the maximum amount of cambium (single layer of cells just below the bark) to ensure a successful graft.

It took the team of five grafters and four last-minute labourers eight hours to graft 430 vines but by the end of the day, Jean-Marc had a brand new vineyard.

All of the vines in Tuchan are grafted.  Phylloxera devastated most French vineyards in around 1890 and the only cure was to plant phylloxera-resistant American rootstock and graft the scion on to the roots.

Grafting was commonplace and French farmers would plant the American rootstock in year 1 and graft on the scion in year 2.  

From the 1970s, it was easier and much less time-consuming to buy prepared plants from specialist nurseries.  The prepared plants have the American rootstock and the selected graft all ready to be planted.

So why would you still bother to graft today?  Jean-Marc says that it can take up to 20 years for a vine to establish its root structure because our soils are so stony and dry.  If you graft vines on to the existing rootstock then you can harvest within two years because of the vigour from the roots.  If you plant a vineyard from scratch you have to wait four years to harvest. 

It also means that if you have the trellising wires in place then you don’t have to take them up and put them back.  And believe me, taking up and knocking in posts in our stony hard soils is no mean task. 

I did get very excited about the idea of being able to change the grape varieties overnight at Domaine Jones so that I could up my production of Carignan Gris and Lledoner Pelut but Jean-Marc was very quick – in fact extremely quick - to point out that it will only work on younger more vigorous vines!

See the whole grafting process in this video.

Haute Sécurité

This year we have put up over 1 mile of fencing around our more sensitive vines to try and keep our old ‘friend’ the wild boar out of our precious vineyards.  It’s never quite as easy as saying ‘I’m just going to put up a fence’ as firstly we had to get the digger out to clear away the undergrowth and then 'we' knocked in over 400 metal posts in perhaps one of the stoniest soils in France. 

 

 
The priority was to protect the vineyards on the edge of the garrigue (prime wild boar territory) such as La Caune or Falandrin with its natural spring that becomes a regular watering hole in the summer.
 
All the vineyards we protected were either syrah which ripen early, or the deliciously aromatic muscat with the exception of St Roch which is planted with 100 year old carignan and grenache and normally of less interest to the greedy wild pigs.  But as it is one the last vineyards to be harvested in the village, when everything else has been picked our little vineyard at St Roch becomes surprisingly tasty.

This year the wild boar seem to be hungrier than ever and have already started nibbling at unripe grapes in our unprotected vineyards.  They were so desperate to get into the Falandrin vineyard that they ram raided the fence.
 

For the love of old vines

Domaine Jones is made up of 20 small vineyards scattered across the arid countryside around the remote village of Tuchan.  The vines are exclusively old vines and old means old in Domaine Jones language.  From 40 years up to over 100 years.  I have been collecting vineyards since we started the Domaine in 2009 with just one.  I now have a fine collection of some of the oldest vineyards in the village - Carignan, Grenache, Syrah, Muscat and Macabeu – all old, all magnificently located and all extremely hard work.

 

Even on our old vines we want to keep the yields down so that all the grapes can ripen evenly and healthily.  We thin out the shoots and take off unwanted leaves at the bottom of the vines by hand during the spring.

For the syrah on trellisis we make sure that the rows stay neat and tidy by tucking the branches behind the wires two or three times during the growing season.  And when the branches are too high to stay within the wires we chop them off with hand held sheers.  We also plough with our trusty steed - the 50 year old chenillard tractor.
 

 

If I just had one little vineyard all this could be quite fun but as a collector of vineyards I now have over 50 000 vines that need individual care and attention. Not the walk in the park (or in the vineyard)  I had envisaged!
 
So is all this hard work worth it?  And is it reflected in the quality of the wine?
 
Given all the rave reviews our wines get I think we must be doing something right.  Our attention to detail and our knowledge of each individual vineyard means that our wine making starts in the vineyard 9 months before we even pick the first grape.

Happy vines make happy wines!