Pruning 2024
Pruning: Resetting the Vines for a New Year
Hello from the vines,
While the rest of the world was easing into the new year, our vineyard was already deep in one of the most important tasks of the entire cycle…winter pruning.
This job marks the true beginning of the season. Quiet, methodical, and absolutely essential…
What pruning really means
Through late December, January and February, the vines are fast asleep — bare, dormant, and holding all their energy deep in the wood. This is when Chris heads out, secateurs in hand, to shape the entire year ahead.
Pruning decides:
how much fruit the vine will carry
how strong the shoots will be
how balanced the canopy grows
Ultimately, these factors effect the quality of the grapes we’ll harvest. It might look like “cutting things back,” but it’s really the art of deciding what to leave.
Chris in his winter element
Picture it:
Beautiful cold mornings, rows of sleeping vines, steam from a flask of coffee and two Labradors weaving between posts…and Chris quietly working his way down the vineyard, vine by vine, choosing each cane with intention.
It’s slow work — thousands of cuts, thousands of decisions — but it’s one of the places he’s happiest.
Pruning demands patience, precision and a little bit of obsession…all things Chris has in abundance
The vineyard in winter
This is the vineyard at its most honest.
No leaves.
No fruit.
No colour.
Just shapes, structure, and the skeleton of what the next season will become.
Winter can look bleak to some, but to us, it’s full of promise.
Why pruning matters later in the year
Strong pruning leads to strong vines.
Strong vines lead to balanced fruit.
Balanced fruit leads to better wine.
It’s the unseen season — the silent foundation beneath the louder months.
Looking ahead
With pruning finished and the vines tied down, the vineyard is now ready for spring.
Budburst will arrive before we know it.
Shoots will appear.
The rows will slowly turn green again.
Thank you for following the journey
We love bringing you into the real work — the early starts, the cold hands, the patience and the craft that don’t always make it onto Instagram.
Every season, every task, every tiny decision brings us one step closer to sharing the first bottles with you.
More updates soon,
Kelly & Chris
The Cornish Vineyard
