PRUNING

Received wisdom is that pruning hard keeps yields low and quality high. However, many growers in Australia have found that they can produce good quality wine with minimal pruning or no pruning at all: yields, they say, find their own level. The debate continues, with European growers still firmly in the hard-pruning camp. This worker at Château Léoville-Barton in Bordeaux is leaving just two crop-bearing branches for the year to come. The answer (if there ever is one) may turn out to be that it is local conditions that matter most.