Marco Simonit gives master pruning ‘lesson’ at Harvard

The co-founder of Simonit&Sirch was a keynote speaker at the recent ‘Vine to Mind: Decanting Wine's Future with Data Science & AI’ symposium that brought together luminaries, academics and top executives from the world of wine and scientific research at Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts. 

Organised in collaboration with the Journal of Wine Economics to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the Harvard Data Science Review (HDSR), the purpose of the event was twofold: to shed light on the marriage between timeless winemaking traditions and the dynamism of contemporary data science and AI technologies, and to distil the future of viticulture with data-driven insight, innovation and collaboration. 

Climate and grapes 

The other speakers included Argentine vintner and physician Laura Catena, the Managing Director of Bodega Catena Zapata and Founder of the Catena Institute of Wine, Saskia de Rothschild, the CEO and General Manager of Château Lafite Rothschild and Michael Silacci, winemaker at Opus One, Jeffrey Meisel, the Vice President and General Manager of Constellation Brands and Orley Ashenfelter, the President of the American Association of Wine Economists. 

Marco Simonit was the keynote speaker of the afternoon session dedicated to the topic of ‘Climate and Grapes’, which addressed the question of how in a world where climate change is constantly redrawing the boundaries, data science can guide the evolution of viticulture. Simonit’s speech focused on the design of vineyards in the face of climate change, which attracted considerable interest.  

He explained how climate change has become a major issue in recent years, the effects of which can now be seen and experienced every day. “The effects of climate change such as rising average temperatures and extreme events such as droughts, heat waves and severe storms are affecting the world's major wine-growing districts with increasing frequency.” 

Marco Simonit and his international team of master pruners at Simonit&Sirch are ideally placed to observe the impact of the changing climate on vineyards around the world. They have worked with more than 160 wineries across 15 countries: Italy, Austria, Germany, France, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, the UK, Hungary, USA, Argentina, Chile, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. 

Shifting north – and up 

“In order to escape these problems, new winegrowing areas are needed,” Simonit observes. “So we have focused on two points that we consider essential."

“In this context,” he concludes, “it is useful to foster the resilience of plants to climatic variables: on the one hand, by preserving the efficiency of the water conduction system in the plants and improving the reserves in the living wood, and on the other hand, by managing shoots and clusters in a manner that guarantees plant vigour.”  

The Simonit&Sirch pruning method is based on four fundamental principles, namely progressively accumulating “living wood” on the vine, respecting the plant’s vascular flow, reducing the size of pruning cuts and respecting the crowns (at the base of every cane), and leaving a certain amount of protective wood on the vine. 

Adapting to the vine 

It is these principles that guide the Simonit&Sirch pruning method which has now been adopted by some of the world’s most renowned wineries from Angelus, Pichon-Longueville, Lynch-Bages and Yquem in Bordeaux, Leflaive in Burgundy, Louis Roederer in Champagne, Symington in Portugal, Biondi-Santi, Ferrari and Alois Lageder in Italy and Corison and Quintessa in Napa Valley. 

Regardless of where vineyards are located, Simonit believes planting density needs to be reconsidered to reduce the use of water/resources and to have sufficient space for the development of the plant’s architecture. “Dynamic architectures must be designed, which can be developed and modified according to the life cycle of the plant: they will be the backbone of the shoots and bunches and will become a key point for adapting the plants to their terroir,” he says. 

Marco Simonit has long believed in sharing his expertise – not only with the vineyard teams that he and his team work alongside but also with the next generation. He opened the Simonit&Sirch Academy for vine master pruners in 2021, the world's first digital platform entirely dedicated to vine pruning training, and also has collaborations with 10 wine research institutes and universities.  

“Together with people from vineyards all over the world, we can help vines at any latitude to become stronger, more sustainable, to live longer and be able to adapt better to climate change,” Marco Simonit explains about the rationale behind the academy.