Our old people use to say that the vines “take a nap” in winter. 
During the winter months, the sap runs slower into the shoots and the vines recover from their summer life cycle. This quiet time is very important for the vineyards, as it will allow a good vegetative start in spring. 

Winegrowers have to work hard to help the vines regenerate: pruning is a long and thorough operation, which is performed manually by our qualified and trained people.
Pruning is also an ancient work, where experience is essential to understand the vigour of each vine in order to give the correct shape to the branches and to balance the future fruit production and vegetative growth. It is also crucial to reach excellent grape quality, because it will influence grape’s ripening and the concentration of flavours and micro-elements into the berries.

We adopt two different pruning systems, according to the grape varieties and age.

Native varieties are pruned “a pezzo e spalla”, the traditional Sicilian training system, which is similar to modern Guyot, where the vines produce their grapes one year on one side, and on the other side the following year. This operation results in the careful control of the grapes production, thus respecting a more balanced vital cycle of the plants.

International varieties are cordon-trained: this system allows a good canopy management especially when the vines have a vertical growth habit, such as Chardonnay or Cabernet Sauvignon.