Cordon is a grapevine training system in which one or more permanent woody arms extend horizontally along a trellis wire. Short spurs are retained along the cordon and pruned each year to control bud number and crop load. Cordon training is widely used in commercial vineyards because it creates an orderly canopy and can be adapted to mechanised vineyard operations.
The vine is trained to a trunk and a permanent arm, or two arms, running along the fruiting wire. Each winter, the grower prunes the previous season’s growth back to short spurs with a specified number of buds. During the growing season, shoots emerge from these spurs and are positioned within the trellis.
In a spur-pruned cordon system, the permanent arm remains in place from year to year, while the short spurs are renewed through pruning. This can make pruning and canopy management relatively consistent. The number of spurs and buds depends on vine spacing, variety, vigour and the desired crop load.
Example: a Cabernet Sauvignon vineyard may use a bilateral cordon system with spur pruning, where permanent arms extend in both directions along the fruiting wire.
Cordon retains permanent horizontal arms and is commonly spur-pruned. Guyot is a cane-pruning system in which one or two long canes are renewed and tied to a wire each year. Gobelet is a free-standing bush system without a continuous trellis wire.
Chef’s note: cordon is a training and pruning system, not a grape variety. Its suitability depends on climate, variety, vineyard layout and labour or mechanisation requirements.
This term is one of hundreds covered in depth across OCS courses, learning paths, and 1-on-1 coaching with Chef Eric.
