Pruning

It’s a vital and fundamental part of growing vines. We want to maintain the perfect balance between the vine stock’s longevity and yield. We change our pruning methods (Chablis, Cordon, Vallée de la Marne) to suit the variety and our terroir. It takes one person a whole month to prune one hectare. We prefer short pruning with fewer fruit-bearing branches, which means fewer grapes. Quality over quantity is the name of the game.

Once pruned, we attach each shoot to its wire. That way we train the vine shoots, which helps control and encourage the vine to grow.

Suckering and tillage

The vine wakes up and sap reappears to bring the first buds. We remove any suckers (useless, unproductive and counter buds) so the sap focuses on the main buds that will produce clusters. At the same time, we take care of our soil by mowing, hoeing and using machinery.

Protecting the vineyard

Fabien and Sandrine Hautbois look after the vineyard with a sustainable approach for the good of their team and vines

We apply a mixture of targeted fertiliser use with organic and biodynamic methods to our vineyards so we use fewer synthetic additives. Mating disruption¹ has meant we haven’t used insecticide in the last 25 years. We feed our vine-growing soil with natural organic and biodynamic² nutrients. We use ground cover on our entire vineyard. That means less weedkiller and soil erosion. We have ground cover surrounding our plots to reduce run-off, erosion and surface water pollution.

¹ Mating disruption is a pest management technique to protect vines. It stops pests from finding mates, thereby reducing their populations.
² Biodynamic agriculture is a method that doesn’t use any chemical products. It’s a holistic and environmental approach to farming.

Trellising

Once the branches have grown to over 50cm, we lift them, separate them and contain them between two wires. It’s essential to airing the plant, keeping the vine healthy and growing properly. It’s a tricky operation that takes our team 3 weeks to complete.

Then, where necessary, we thin out the crop. We use secateurs to “green harvest” the grapes and drop unripened clusters to the ground. This helps the remaining clusters to ripen.

We prune the vine all summer to manage its height. Lateral shoots³ will then grow on the branches. We remove them by hand or machine to avoid draining the vine.

³ Lateral shoots grow from a prompt bud at the base of a leaf.

Harvesting

It’s the end of summer and time to harvest. It’s the culmination of a whole year of work. Every year we have a loyal harvest team who know exactly what they have to do (picking, carrying, transporting, loading etc.). They take care to pick the best grapes. We spend 3 weeks together in a happy, buzzing and family atmosphere. All this goes into giving the Hautbois family a good harvest. 


The grapes are quickly and carefully sent to our press rooms so the juice doesn’t spend too long in contact with the grape skin, that way we can make white wine with some of our black grapes (Pinot Noir and Meunier).