Work on the vine determines the quality of the future harvest:

At the Domaine de Graillefiot, our policy is:

• De-budding: any non-productive shoots and excess productive shoots are regularly removed by hand during spring time.
• Thinning: this operation is not necessary given he low vigour of our vines. The ten or so bunches of grapes on each vine, which are not very heavy, mean that we produce only one bottle of wine per plant.
• Five wire trellising: to prevent the leaves from crowding the fruit which can lead to grey rot. This significantly increases the exposure of the leaves to light, thus improving the potential for photosynthesis. This results in a higher than average content of anthocyanins (colour) and polyphenols (tannins). This method requires several manual operations in order to lift and fix the shoots.
• Thinning the leaves: to increase the exposure of the grapes to the sun as soon as berry set commences (East facing only) in order to further improve colour and maturity. This procedure results in exceptional aromas for the Syrah grapes. Air circulation around the fruit is better and it is less prone to grey rot - a real problem in the vineyard and a danger for quality. This manual operation, which is only carried out by the very finest vineyards, whose aim is perfection, requires over 60 hours of work per hectare!
• Topping - Clipping: this mechanical operation leads to secondary flowering and the grapes never reach phenolic maturity (especially Mourvèdre grapes). Therefore, the shoots are never topped or clipped. This means that a lot of trellising work is required in order to facilitate the passage of the tractor along the rows and improve the efficiency of spraying.