Explained: Training Systems

In our latest Explained series, we wanted to explain vines look the way they do. Why it can be the difference between a good season and a poor one and why British vineyards look different to those on the continent.

If you’ve ever walked through a vineyard in Kent or Hampshire and wondered why the vines look like neatly manicured wires rather than the wild, sprawling bushes you see in Greece or Spain, this should help explain.

In the UK, and across a lot of other cool-climate winemaking regions, our goal is to maximise sunlight, manage airflow, and ensure that every grape gets enough energy to ripen before the autumn rains and frosts arrive.

Grapevines are naturally vigorous climbers. Left to their own devices, they would grow into a tangled mess of leaves and wood, hiding their fruit in the shade. Training systems use trellising (posts and wires) to dictate the vine's shape, which helps:

• Prevent Rot: By keeping fruit off the ground and ensuring air can circulate.

• Control Yield: By limiting the number of buds allowed to grow.

• Standardise Ripening: Ensuring all grapes are exposed to the sun at the same time.

  
  

Common UK Methods

1. The Double Guyot (Replacement Cane Pruning)

Named after French doctor Jules Guyot, the vast majority of British vineyards use the Double Guyot system. It is well suited to our cooler climate. Each winter, the previous year's wood is cut away, leaving two long canes (branches) from the current year. These are bent down and tied to the fruiting wire, forming a T shape.

It allows for a thin, vertical wall of leaves know as a Vertical Shoot Positioning or VSP canopy. The thin canopy ensures that the maximum amount of our limited British sunshine hits the leaves and the fruits.

2. Cordon de Royat (Spur Pruning)

Known normally just as Cordon Pruning, unlike Guyot, the horizontal arms are permanent, old wood. Each year, the winemaker prunes the growth back to small spurs along these permanent arms. Cordon-trained vines are often easier and faster to prune, which can save on labour costs. It also tends to produce smaller, more concentrated berries, though it can struggle with the cold British winters as opposed to Guyot.

3. Scott Henry System

In some very fertile British sites, vines grow so fast that a standard Guyot system can’t handle the foliage. This leads to "shading," which prevents ripening and encourages mildew. Scott Henry pruning can help with this. This is a divided canopy system which means the vine is split so that half the shoots grow upward and the other half are tucked to grow downward.

By doubling the surface area of the leaves exposed to the sun, it helps "tame" high-vigor sites (like those on rich clay soils) and ensures the fruit doesn't get buried under a mountain of leaves.

Whether you choose to use Guyot or Cordon, you will have to use VSP as a method of controlling the growth. Normally, we refer to this simply as 'tucking-in'. It keeps the vine growing upwards within the trellis wire. As the vine grows, the green shoots are tucked between these wires so they grow straight up like a hedge.

Without VSP, the UK's high humidity would quickly lead to Downy Mildew because the leaves would clump together, trapping moisture. By keeping the shoots vertical and separated, the wind can blow through the "fruit zone," drying the grapes after a summer shower.

System	Best Used For	Pruning Style
Single/Double Guyot	Quality sparkling wine (Pinot/Chardonnay)	Cane Pruned
Cordon de Royat	Consistency and labor efficiency	Spur Pruned
Scott Henry	High-vigor, fertile soil sites	Divided Canopy

You can contact us directly at info@thevinehouse.co.uk for advice in choosing a pruning method.