Common Vine Training Systems
Training system | Other names | Spur or Cane trained | Origins | Regions commonly found | Benefits | Disadvantages | Other notes | Sources |
Alberate | Spur | Likely ancient, used by the Romans | Italy-particularly rural areas of Tuscany, Veneto and Romagna | Easy to maintain, requires minimal pruning | Can produce excessive yields of low quality vine | Ancient technique of allowing vines to grow through trees for support | Oxford | |
Ballerina | Spur | Victoria, Australia | Australia | A variant of the Smart-Dyson involving 1 vertical and 2 transverse curtains of shoots growing from 1 or 2 upwards facing cordons | Oxford | |||
Basket Training | Spur | Australia | South Australia regions like Coonawarra and Padthaway | Easy to maintain, requires minimal pruning | Lots of shading which in wet climates can promote rot and grape diseases | Essentially a minimally pruned version of the bush vine/Gobelet system | Oxford | |
Cassone Padavano | Spur | Italy | Italy | A variant of the Sylvos except that the vines are trained horizontally along wires instead of vertically up or down | Oxford | |||
Cazenave | Cane | Italy | Italy | Well suited for fertile vineyard soils | Italian variant of the Guyot system involving spurs and canes being arranged along a single horizontal cordon | Oxford | ||
Chablis | Eventail, Taille de Semur | Spur | Developed in Chablis | Champagne | A self-regulating system for vine spacing, the spurs are allowed to fan out until they encroach on the next vine | If not supported by wires, some arms can fall to the ground | 90% of all Chardonnay plantings in Champagne use this method | Sotheby |
Chateau Thierry | Cane | France | France | A variant of the Guyot system where a single cane is tied into an arch with a stake support next to its free standing mother vine | Oxford | |||
Cordon de Royat | Spur | Bordeaux | Champagne for Pinot noir & Pinot Meunier | Described as a spur trained version of Guyot Simple. Also has a double spur variant | Sotheby | |||
Cordon Trained | Spur | Late 20th century | California and parts of Europe | Essentially a spur trained version of the Guyot system that involves using single or bilateral cordons instead of canes | Oxford | |||
Duplex | Cane | California in the 1960s | California and parts of Europe | Allows for easy mechanization | Can produce excessive yields and foliage which may promote grape diseases | A variation of the Geneva Double Curtain | Oxford | |
Fan shape | Ventagli | Spur | Central Europe | Central Europe and Russia | Allows for easy burial during winter frost protection | Central and Eastern European variation of the Chablis/Eventail system that promotes a larger fanning out of the vine's spurs | Oxford | |
Geneva Double Curtain | Spur | Developed by Nelson Shaulis in New York State in the 1960s | Found all over the world | Increase protection from frost and ideal for fully mechanized vineyards | Can produce excessive yields | A downward growing, split canopy system | Sotheby | |
Gobelet | Bush vines, head training | Spur | Likely ancient, used by Egyptians and Romans | Mediterranean regions. Examples Beaujolais, Languedoc and Sicily | Suitable for low vigor vines | Vines can be supported by stakes or left free standing | Sotheby | |
Guyot | Cane | Developed by Jules Guyot in 1860s | Found all over the world, especially Burgundy | One of the less complicated and easiest to maintain system that will restrain yields. | Has a double and simple variant | Sotheby | ||
Lenz Moser | "High culture" training or Hochkultur | Spur | Developed by Dr. Lenz Moser III in Austria in 1920s | Used throughout parts of Europe from the mid to late 20th century | Easy to maintain with reduced labor and machinery cost | Can cause excessive shading in the fruit zone with reduced grape quality | Influenced Dr. Shaulis' development of the Geneva Double Curtain | Oxford |
Lyre | The "U" system | Spur | Developed by Alain Carbonneau in Bordeaux | More common in New World wine regions | Allows good air circulation and sunlight penetration | Not ideally suited for low vigor vines | Can be adapted to cane training systems | Sotheby |
Mosel arch | Cane | Mosel | Germany | Each vine has it own stake with two canes bent into a heart shape. During the growing season the vines have the appearance of trees | Clarke | |||
Pendelbogen | European Loop, Arch-Cane, Capovolto | Cane | Germany | Switzerland, Rhineland, Alsace, Macon, British Columbia and Oregon | Promotes better sap distribution and more fruit bearing shoots especially in the center buds on the cane | Can produce excessive yields and reduce ripeness levels | A variant of the Guyot Double | Sotheby |
Ruakura Twin Two-Tier | RT2T | Spur | New Zealand | New Zealand | Well suited for high-vigor vineyards by spreading out the canopy | Difficult to mechanize | Similar to the Geneva Double Curtain except that the canopy is spread out over 4 curtains, two on top and two on bottom | Oxford |
Scott Henry | Cane and Spur variant | Developed at Henry Estate Winery in Oregon | Oregon, many New World wine regions | Increased fruiting areas and a split canopy that allows more sun penetration, producing less herbaceous wines with smoother tannins | Can produce excessive yields. Very labor intensive and expensive to set up | Involves growing shoots along movable wires that allows the grower to shift half the canopy into a downwards growing position | Sotheby | |
Smart-Dyson | Spur | Developed by Australian Richard Smart and American John Dyson | United States, Australia, Chile, Argentina, Spain and Portugal | Often used with organic viticulture due to the very open canopy that limits disease threat or the need for pesticides | Similar to the Scott Henry except that the cordon is trained with alternating upwards and downward trained spurs creating 2 canopies | Oxford | ||
Sylvos | Hanging cane, Sylvoz | Spur | Developed by Carlos Sylvos in Italy | Australia and New Zealand | Requires minimal pruning and easy to maintain and mechanize | Produces a dense canopy that is prone to bunch rot | Similar to Guyot Double except the vines are growing downward from a taller (usually over 6 ft/2m) trunk | Sotheby |
Sylvos-Casarsa | Casarsa Friuli | Spur | Friuli-Venezia Giulia | Northern Italy | Similar to the Sylvos | Similar to Sylvos except that the canes do not need to be tied down after pruning. | Oxford | |
Sylvos-Hawkes Bay | Spur | Montana Wines adaptation of the Sylvos developed in the 1980s | New Zealand | Creates a more open canopy that allows more air circulation and less prone to bunch rot | Can produce excessive yields and reduce ripeness levels | Combines aspects of the Scott Henry system of alternating upwards and downwards growing shoots with the Sylvos system | Sotheby | |
T Trellis | Spur | Australia | Australia | Can be mechanized for harvest and pruning | An undivided canopy may promote excessive shading | Utilizes 2 horizontal cordons that together with the vine trunk give the appearance of the letter "T" | Oxford | |
Tatura Trellis | Spur | Australia | Australia | Two incline canopies meeting at a 60 degree angle in the middle provides for ample air and light penetration | Can produce excessive yields and difficult to mechanize | Only recently in the 21st century has this style been used for commercial viticulture | Oxford | |
Tendone | Parral, Parron, Pergola, Verandah | Spur | Italy | Southern Italy and parts of South America | Grapes grown overhead on arbors or pergolas have little risk of falling to the ground or eaten by animals | Expensive to construct & maintain, very dense canopy and potential for grape diseases to develop | More often used for table grape rather than wine production | Oxford |
V Trellis | Spur | Australia | Many New World wine regions | Similar to the Lyre "U trellis" except that the cordons are separate from the base trunk | Oxford | |||
VSP Trellis | Vertical Shoot Positioned Trellis | Cane and Spur variant | Several variants developed independently in Europe and New World wine regions | Cane in New Zealand, spur trained variant in France & Germany | Well suited for mechanized vineyards and low vigor vines | Can produce excessive yields and shading | Most common system of vine training used in New Zealand | Sotheby |
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