Since Phylloxera ravaged the European vines in the late 19th century, all vines in Europe are the result of a laborious process of grafting the European variety onto American rootstock (known as the "peu" or "foot" of the vine). In the following photographs, Anton is seen grafting the Ull de Llebre variety onto rootstock planted last year. As seen in the page on planting, vines start life in one of two ways: either being planted pre-grafted (usually nursery-prepared) or by planting the rootstock one year, and grafting on the desired variety the following spring. Although Anton makes it look extraordinarily simple (and does it very quickly) there is an art to grafting correctly, and you see less and less farmers doing it nowadays. (Anton himself used pre-grafted stock this year).

The grafts are prepared using branches of Ull de Llebre pruned (in another of their vineyards) in the winter. They have been kept in a dark damp place to avoid them drying out. As can be appreciated on the right they are cut into a V-shape, down to the core of the branch (a slightly darker section in the middle of the branch). They are then kept wet until inserted into the rootstock.

The growth of the peu is cut back, leaving just the roots and the beginning of the trunk.The new stock will be grafted on just below the surface of the earth. Note that the peu has just started shooting (these photos were taken in mid-April).

The trunk is split down the middle (again note the darker heart at the centre) and the V-shaped graft spliced into it. The end result is shown at the top of the page. This is a simple graft which is generally effective. Vines can also be grafted using a sort of slanted W-shape (see right) which whilst more fail-safe, is considerably more time consuming, and not generally worth the extra difficulty.

The graft is traditionally tied up with Raffia (a reed like plant) but nowadays is more likely to be done with bio-degradable plastic strips or tape. The binding must hold the graft secure until it "takes" but must then not throttle the vine, hence the importance of it being bio-degradable (as well as the obvious ecological issue).

Finally the whole plant is covered with earth to ensure that the graft doesn't dry out. It will remain this way until the new growth breaks the surface and the graft consolidates. Anton expects a near 100% success ratio of the grafts, and the few that fail can be re-grafted either next month, or if it fails later in the year, next spring. Although this makes it appear very straightforward, various "uncontrollables" (particularly inclement weather) can affect how well the grafts take.

Once the newly-grafted vines have consolidated themselves, there is still one further task before Anton and Sergi can relax. The grafts are liable to grow roots at the point of the join, and these must be removed in early summer. The object of removing these roots is twofold. Firstly, as they are relatively near the surface, they would be torn up anyway by ploughing, and more importantly, if they are the result of the Ull de Llebre rooting, they would make the vine vulnerable to the phylloxera bug, thus invalidating the whole process. See Grafting part II to see how it's done.