As tradition has it, ploughing takes place in march and june ; earthing down in may and august ; de-budding, ie leaving only one shoot per bud, and green-harvesting throughout july and august ; whereas manual grape-picking takes place selectively over four warm and sunny afternoons in late september. This natural way of proceeding has but one objective in mind : encourage the vinetree to invest all its energy into bearing berries of exceptional ripeness and quality
