When we talk about a great wine, we usually talk about aromas, flavors, complexity, or that bottle that left us speechless. But, setting aside personal tastes—because that will always be subjective—all great wines have something in common: balance.
A balanced wine finds harmony among its four pillars: fruit, acidity, alcohol, and tannins. If one dominates too much over the others, the wine loses that sense of wholeness. This is not only noticeable in the glass but also in its ability to evolve over time.
And where does this balance come from?
The vineyard.
There is a well-known saying in the wine world: you can make a bad wine from excellent grapes, but never a great wine from poor-quality grapes. That's why the most important decisions are often made long before the grapes reach the winery.
And probably none is as important as pruning.
Every winter, when the vine enters dormancy, the viticulturist has to imagine how that plant will grow throughout the next season. Not all vines are the same. Two plants, side by side, may need completely different pruning. Perhaps one grew too much the previous year and needs its vigor contained; another produced too much fruit and became exhausted; another had little growth and will need help to regain strength.
Pruning is, in part, science. One must understand the plant's vigor, soil fertility, reserves accumulated during the previous season, and how the sap circulates. But it also involves a lot of experience and intuition. The viticulturist must interpret what happened last year and, at the same time, anticipate what might come next. It's no easy task.
And when that balance is achieved in the vineyard, it usually also appears in the wine.
If No One Prunes Them, Vines Would Be a Jungle.
Unlike us, vines have a single goal: to survive and reproduce.
A vine does not dream of producing perfectly balanced clusters to make a great wine. What it wants is to climb the nearest tree, cover everything in its path, and produce as many seeds as possible. The quality of the wine is not among its priorities.
Thousands of years ago, before vineyards existed, wild vines grew in the forests of Europe, Asia, and North America. The first viticulturists soon discovered that it was necessary to domesticate the plant. The Greeks and Romans already described pruning as an indispensable practice.
The Romans may not have understood photosynthesis, but they did know that an unpruned vine produced a lot of grapes... and not necessarily better wine. Some lessons never change.
It's all about finding balance.
Each vine has a limited amount of energy each year. That energy must be distributed among shoot growth, leaf production, fruit ripening, root development, and storing reserves for the next season.
Pruning is the tool that allows the viticulturist to decide how to distribute that energy.
If too many buds are left during winter, the vine will awaken in spring thinking it has dozens of clusters to feed. If too few are left, it will have an excess of energy that it will direct towards vegetative growth.
Neither situation produces the best wine.
What is Overcropping?
Overcropping occurs when a vine produces more clusters than it can actually ripen.
Imagine running a marathon carrying twenty grocery bags. You'd probably reach the finish line... but you'd hardly set your best time.
When a plant is overcropped, the leaves are not able to produce enough energy for all the clusters to fully ripen. The result is usually grapes with less sugar and less expressive wines.
Furthermore, the plant reaches winter exhausted. Having spent so many reserves trying to ripen all that fruit, it stores less energy in the roots and trunk. These reserves will fuel the growth of the following spring. A single excessive harvest can influence the next one, and several consecutive years of overproduction can seriously weaken a vineyard.
Some producers carry out a green harvest to remove some of the clusters during the summer and alleviate this burden. It is a useful tool when nature surprises with excessive production, but it never replaces well-planned pruning from winter.
What about producing too little fruit?
The opposite extreme also exists. It's called "Undercropping."
When a vine has too little fruit to balance its vigor, it usually dedicates all its energy to producing shoots and leaves. At first glance, it may seem like a spectacular plant, but this excess vegetation creates shade, can lead to vegetal notes in the wine, it also hinders air circulation, and favors diseases like powdery mildew or downy mildew.
Additionally, with so much leaf area, the fruit can accumulate sugar very quickly while losing acidity. The result is wines with more alcohol, less freshness, and, at times, with herbaceous notes or an overripeness that breaks the balance.
The goal is never to produce the least possible amount of grapes.
The goal is for the plant to produce exactly what it is capable of ripening.
The Invisible Art
