Early December, as soon as temperatures fall and the sap flows down to the trunk of the vines, the main mission of our wine grower and his team starts: pruning.

We pay extra caution all along this stage to respect the sap flow in order to protect our beautiful vines.

The objective of pruning is to manage the vine canopy and its yield as well as optimising quality. By choosing the number of buds that will appear, this practice allows  concentration (sugars, aromas, etc) in the grape.

Different styles of pruning exist and at Château de Bellet we use two of them: Cordon Double pruning and Guyot pruning.

• Cordon Double pruning (or Cordon de Royat) is used on 3 of our varieties: Folle Noire,  Grenache and Rolle. This kind of pruning is caracterised by the two horizontal canes of around 40cm which carry in average 5 coursons (branches cut short in order to concentrate the sap).
• Instead, Guyot  pruning is used on 2 cultivars: Chardonnay and Braquet. The vine is made of a trunk that is prolongated by a cane (superior vine shoot) and a couson (inferior vine shoot).

Pruning is a long process that lasts 3 to 4 months and keeps our team busy all winter long.

Our team is reading to welcome you at Château de Bellet to share our wines and our passion!