Arnoux-Lachaux Viticulture – Procès 2

I am therefore closely following the viticultural progress in one of the Lachaux vineyards, to experience and hopefully explain what is happening over the months to come.

Nuits-Saint-Georges Les Procès

The vines on February 16 – before pruning

The pruned vines on March 5

The vines were pruned in the first week of March (apparently), using Arnoux-Lachaux’s “homemade” Gobelet-Poussard method – a modified Guyot-Poussard pruning. 

This is fairly complex, so I will have to study it more closely. The photos below show newly pruned Gobelet-Poussard vines in the Procès vineyard with – where possible – three budding arms (“coursons,” in French) growing off the vine’s trunk. Each courson holds 2-3 buds, but Charles Lachaux will go with maximum 8 fruiting shoots.

Another example…

The logic is that this system helps keep sap and nutrients flowing from the roots to the new growth through a larger diameter of the trunk, ensuring healthier sapwood and helping prevent wood-based diseases.

This pruning system offers other attributes as well, one being that it supports higher trellising, including the labour-intensive Paisseaux canopy (each vine with its own individual stake).

“Taille tot, taille tard, rien ne vaut la taille de mars” (Prune early or prune late, nothing’s as good as pruning in March)!