Every Winelover will surely have read, in the many reviews of wines, that there are many types of vine training systems. But, what do we mean by vine breeding? We mean its cultivation and the management of rows. The set of the many types of disposition of vine in the rows and the disposition of the shoots of each vine is called "vine training system".
The choice of the most appropriate training system is dictated by the type of vine and by pedoclimatic conditions, in order to ensure the plant an excellent exposure of leaves to sun rays, a balanced development of buds and a perfect air circulation between leaves and bunches, in order to avoid humidity stagnation which would cause harmful moulds. In our country there are many different forms of cultivation, as, from region to region, the viticultural tradition changes. It is possible to make many classifications of the forms of farming, for example according to the height from the ground of the fruiting branches, to the direction in space (vertical, horizontal, oblique or roof), to the short or long pruning. Since the vine is a climbing plant, it was
it was necessary to "educate" it in order to obtain the safeguarding of grapes and its correct management.
The first distinction we can make among the different types of vine breeding is the one between vine breeding with brace and without brace. In the first case we talk about "sapling" cultivation. In the second case we make a further distinction between the cultivation of the vine with live and inert braces. In the first case we talk about the so called "alberate" while the second case includes all the forms of farming commonly used in modern viticulture.
In case vines are cultivated with inert supports, we distinguish between cases in which the support structure is placed along the axis of the row and cases in which the support structure is placed between rows. In the first case we have espaliers and (also called "counter espaliers") with the various pruning systems. These types of vine breeding, born in France and from there spread all over the world, are called modern forms of breeding. In the second case we have the "pergolas", the
"marquees" and other traditional forms of farming in which plants are also developed in a radial or transversal way as opposed to rows.
For our vineyards we chose to use mainly three types of training systems:
- The 'Guyot' system which includes a type of winter pruning which accurately selects the shoots which will bear the new bunches for the following harvests. It is the most used system in Europe and in most of our peninsula. Through this system, our Greco di Tufo DOCG 'Don Raffaele', Fiano di Avellino DOCG 'Eugenia' and finally our Benevento Falanghina IGP are born.
- The 'Cordone Speronato' system is characterized by a type of "short" pruning which is based exclusively on the environmental, geographical and vegetal parameters which distinguish the type of plant cultivated, its location and the climatic conditions to which it is subjected. With this system are born our Taurasi DOCG 'Vigna Piano D'Angelo' and Irpinia Aglianico DOP 'Rosso Tau'.
- The 'Spalliera' system, one of the most widespread cultivation methods in the world, in which the vines are grown in rows of more or less long, made of wooden, cement, steel or plastic poles, on which are fixed two or more galvanized steel wires placed in tension by means of stronger poles placed at the ends of the row, while the spurred cordon is the pruning technique used. This is how our Irpinia Campi Taurasini 'Sella' was born.