Cultivation of the vines
All along the vegetative cycle, the best possible conditions are created in which to obtain ripe, well constituted and healthy grapes.
Pruning, performed manually in winter, determines the number of shoots each vine will carry the following growing season.
Techniques employed in the spring and the summer remove unnecessary shoots, placing in better position those that will produce the harvest. This also assures better distribution of leaves and grape clusters, which then find themselves aerated, well exposed to the sun, well spaced on the row, and in controlled quantity.
The greatest care is brought to each different operation : at Boyd-Cantenac the number of workers is doubled from May to July, and quadrupled during the harvest period.
Concerning the fight against parasites and pests, as modernisation has always been
considered with circumspection, chemicals used in the 1960s and 1970s never were used
in excess at Boyd-Cantenac, so the vineyards are in remarkable biological equilibrium.
Likewise, chemical fertilisers are unknown at Boyd-Cantenac.
During the month of August growth stops, the grapes become dark purple, and the period of maturation begins ; now energy produced by the leaves, under the effect of the sun, is available to the grapes.
Periodic analyses and tastings of the grapes allow the date of the harvest to be determined. The harvest, beginning with the Merlot, the most precocious of the varietals, is picked manually in order to allow rigorous selection. The harvest lasts anywhere from 10 to 25 days.
