Prune (part deux)

Alright alright alright.

How the time has flown! It’s been a busy—nay, productive—time since the last post. On top of my day jobby-job, I:

• Finished tying down the canes for my rows;

• Picked back up on my French Wine Scholar studies;

• Applied to (but didn’t get) the scholarship seat for the WSG Burgundy Masters Immersion (but got 2nd place and a year-long membership);

• Produced the latest Flight Club (write-up to follow);

• Started piecing the logistics together on how this wine is going to happen;

• Started navigating the labyrinth of tax declarations (and by “started” I mean “opened a bunch of tabs”).

For newcomers: I periodically check the welcome survey and I see a few of you are interested in finding value in wine and also where to buy said discoveries.

I would point you to my Instagram stories, where I regularly post what I’m drinking. I’ve just put together some highlights to make things easier.

As a recovering Two-Buck-Chucker (for Trader Joe’s fans out there), I would self-identify as a value drinker who defines value along a price/quality axis (vs. just price). My range seems to be €20 - €75, and maxes out around €100 if the spirit moves me.

You may see some more expensive bottles posted that I either bought on release and held, or from wine dinners, which are a great way to discover wines and share costs. So, don’t be discouraged.

Flight Club, by the way, is where we share and discover wine together, and the dream is to grow TPW into a bunch of global Flight Clubs. If you’re into that, please share/forward this post to help TPW grow.

As for where to find and buy any particular wine, a good resource is Wine Searcher. For our many new Canadian friends (and those living where alcohol sales are centrally controlled), I don’t know enough about your system to help. If you have experience with this, please comment with your hot tips for the rest of us!

On to today’s post. In the last installment, I gave a little technical context about winter pruning and why it’s important, what single Guyot is, and when you would use it. Today I will tell the story of the man behind the method: Dr. Jules Guyot. Who was he? How did he get into pruning? And… why do we care?

Strap in, it’s a long one.

Setting the scene

It’s the 19th century in France. A lot of stuff is going down. The French Revolution just wrapped in 1799. Napoleon took over, then got overthrown in 1815, and basically until the Third Republic (1870-1940) there was some war or revolutionary rabble-rousing every 15-20 years.

Miraculously, during this same period, France industrialized and urban centers grew, along with international trade, railroads, and myriad cultural and intellectual movements ending in “ism”: Romanticism, Realism, Impressionism, Symbolism, Naturalism, to name a few.

In the world of wine, two historical developments occurred whose effects endure to this day. The first was the Bordeaux Classification of 1855. The second—and most profound—was the arrival of phylloxera, a vine louse from the eastern US first identified in France in the southern Rhône in 1863.

Other pests and diseases had been brought through the unmonitored trade of exotic plants from the Americas earlier in the 19th century, such as Oidium (Powdery Mildew) and Peronospora (Downy Mildew), but their impact paled in comparison to the ruin brought by phylloxera.

Phylloxera’s destructive wake was felt far and wide, decimating the vineyards of Europe during the late 19th century. In France alone, by 1878 more than 915,000 acres had died with another 620,000 dying. By 1895, phylloxera had moved northward, cutting French wine production in half. It was so bad that modern wine history is often told in terms of pre- and post-phylloxera.

While the catalog of its destruction (and subsequent innovations) could be the topic for another post entirely, for the purposes of this one, we just need to know that phylloxera massively and royally f*d things up for a lot of people.

Enter: Dr. Jules Guyot

Before phylloxera really took hold, France had entered a kind of pre-Golden Age golden age. In 1860, France signed a commercial treaty with England (followed by others) and was well on its way to doubling exports between 1860 - 1880.

Domestic demand for wine was also on the rise thanks to the aforementioned railway revolution, urban growth and increased wine consumption among both the elite and regular riff-raff.

Until this point, European vineyards suffered from bad weather and less-than-optimal vineyard management practices, which led to unhealthy grapes, reduced yields and lower-quality wines. Garbage in → garbage out, as it were.

To boost the quality and quantity of French wines (and to crush foreign competition), Eugène Rouher, Prince Napoleon III’s Minister of Agriculture, tasked one Dr. Jules Guyot in 1860 to investigate the vineyards of France and to report back on the country’s best winegrowing and winemaking practices.

To do this, Dr. Guyot visited 67 winegrowing departments from 1860-1867. All together, his reports comprise the three-volume tome, Étude des vignobles de France (“Study of the Vineyards of France”, 1868), widely considered an essential reference in the history of the French vineyard. The three volumes, if you are so inclined, are:

1. South-Central, East, West

2. North-Central, North, North-West

3. South-East, South-West

Étude recommended a number of improvements in the areas of vineyard management, grape variety selection, wine production techniques, disease management, terroir preservation, quality standards as well as advocated for ongoing research and innovation, education and training, the promotion of French wines, and sustainability.

But how did Eugène Rouher even know Dr. Guyot was the right man for the job in the first place? To understand, we have to rewind a bit further.

Who even was Dr. Jules Guyot?

Dr. Jules Guyot was a “Physician-hygienist” (his preferred title), oenophile, medical student, prisoner, quarrelsome employee, inventor, and prolific writer. He is the godfather of an eponymous pear tree, and immortalized by the Institute of Vine and Wine (AKA “Dr. Jules Guyot Institute”) at the University of Burgundy in Dijon.

Dr. Guyot was born in Champagne in 1807, in Gyé-sur-Seine in the Aube department to be exact. His dad was a notary and owned some vineyards in Bar-sur-Seine, so he grew up among the vineyards of the Côte des Bar.

While he developed an appreciation for vines and winegrowers during his childhood, his path to viticulture was a circuitous one, as we’ll come to see.

After college in Troyes (also in Aube), Jules Guyot went to study medicine in Paris, where he received his doctorate in 1833. Why? Given his interests and the rest of his career, it’s kind of hard to explain, but I have to say that the pattern feels familiar (hi Mom!)…

In Paris, he did a lot of non-medical stuff.

For one, he got into physics, publishing works like Éléments de physique générale (“Elements of General Physics”, 1832), Mouvements de l’air (“Air Movements”, 1835) and De la télégraphie de jour et de nuit ("On Telegraphy of Day and Night", 1840), a treatise on liquid lighting for night telegraphy, of all things.

He also got into politics. His involvement in the July Revolution of 1830 landed him and his republican ideals in Saint-Pélagie prison for six months in 1831, where a large part of Éléments was written.

But… how did he get into pruning?

This stint in jail marked a turning point in Dr. Guyot’s life, as jail stints are wont to. He pivoted toward oenology: from 1833 - 1842 he conducted viticulture and winemaking experiments on three hectares near Paris in Argenteuil while also practicing medicine.

From 1844 - 1857, Dr. Guyot went to work for Adolphe Jacquesson, of the famous Jacquesson Champagne house. This was a decisive period in his winemaking career as he got his wine legs (yes, I just made that up) under him developing the Jacquesson wine estate in Sillery and Fagnières.

I can’t find anything to indicate that Dr. Guyot continued practicing medicine while at Jacquesson, so presumably this completed his pivot away from medicine to oenology. (Arguably vines are a lot easier to deal with than patients. Just saying!)

He is also credited with various inventions, among them the cap and muselet (wire cage) to secure Champagne corks, vertical skylights to illuminate wine cellars with natural daylight, anti-frost mats, and various infrastructure and machinery.

But none of that is without controversy (it wouldn’t be a good story without a little drama!). In 1857, Jacquesson and Dr. Guyot broke up. Rumor has it the split was due to disputes over the above inventions and commercial maneuvers. From Dr. Guyot’s side, he was an associate and half-profit partner. From Jacquesson’s side, he was just an employee. Yikes!

But no matter, Dr. Guyot still managed to make a name for himself during that time, publishing a series of articles in the Journal d’Agriculture Pratique (“Journal of Practical Agriculture”) in 1858 about his experiments and research on poor soils and detailing the means of improving vine cultivation and winemaking—including the pruning system that bears his name.

This method, the “Guyot” method, was studied, refined, and popularized by Dr. Guyot, but he did not invent it, as he himself admits in his introduction to Culture de la Vigne et Vinification:

Eventually, the series of articles were collectively published in 1860 as Culture de la Vigne et Vinification (“Culture of the Vine and Wine Making”), earning Dr. Guyot professional recognition and official honors—including the Legion of Honor in 1860—and attracting the attention of Eugène Rouher, who tasked him with the mission to study the vineyards of France.

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And… why do we care?

Dr. Guyot’s various recommendations—and importantly, his eponymous pruning method—most immediately contributed to the growth of the French wine industry by providing guidance to cultivate quality wine not only in cool climates but also larger quantities of it in poor, previously-considered unproductive soils.

However, his greatest impact arguably came later, toward the end of his life and beyond, when the ruinous effects of phylloxera had largely manifested.

Dr. Guyot’s simplified vineyard management principles and pruning method enabled the newly-grafted, phylloxera-resistant vines in now-trellised vineyards to be quickly re-established, and speed the financial recovery of French winemakers.

As the vineyards that converted to his methods became productive again, word spread and Dr. Guyot’s methods were subsequently implemented across Europe and successfully adapted to various grape varieties. Today, his methods are followed to varying degrees throughout wine regions of the world.

In short, without Dr. Guyot’s efforts, we might imagine that the French—if not global—wine industry would look very different today, trickling all the way down to include the types, qualities and costs of wines available for the average consumer to buy and enjoy.

The Guyot method (both single and double) has since been built and improved upon—notably, the Guyot-Poussard method developed by winemakers Rheinhold Dezeimeris (Cadillac) in the 1880s and Eugène Poussard (Charente), as described by René Lafon in his Modifications à Apporter à la Taille de la Vigne dans les Charentes (“Changes to be Made to Vine Pruning In order to Minimise Wood Disease & Decline”, 1921). A topic for another day.

Final days

Not too long after publishing Étude, the Franco-Prussian war forced Dr. Guyot to flee from Puteaux near Paris to Savigny-lès-Beaune in Burgundy in 1870, where he lived the rest of his days until 1872 with his friend, the Count de la Loyère, lord of Savigny-lès-Beaune, a large wine owner whom he met during his visit to the Côte d'Or and with whom he shared political views, particularly regarding the duty and moral obligation of rentier owners to their laborers to direct, educate and share profits.

Dr. Guyot is buried in Savigny, an adopted son of Burgundy, where the portraits of his parents still adorn Savigny town hall.

Just for fun: A handy-dandy, long (but non-exhaustive) timeline of Dr. Guyot’s life with historical milestones

• 1789 - 1799: French Revolution. End of the French monarchy, the rise of republicanism, and the establishment of various revolutionary governments.

• 1799 - 1815: Napoleonic Era. Napoléon Bonaparte becomes Emperor of France in 1804. Napoleonic Wars.

• 1807: Jules Guyot is born in Champagne in Gyé-sur-Seine.

• 1814 - 1830: Restoration Monarchy. The Bourbon dynasty reinstates the monarchy following Napoléon’s defeat. Tensions between royalists and republicans persist.

• 1826: Begins studying medicine in Paris, after completing college in Troyes.

• 1830: The July Revolution leads to the overthrow of the Bourbon monarchy, and establishes the July Monarchy under King Louis-Philippe, which is characterized by constitutional reforms and economic modernization. Almost-Doctor Jules Guyot participates in the revolution.

• 1831: Spends six months in Saint-Pélagie prison for his participation in the July Revolution.

• 1832: Publishes Éléments de physique générale.

• 1833: Receives doctorate in medicine from the University of Paris.

• 1833 - 1842: Conducts viticulture and winemaking experiments on three hectares near Paris in Argenteuil.

• 1835: Publishes Mouvements de l’air.

• 1840: Publishes De la télégraphie de jour et de nuit.

• 1844 - 1857: Works at Jacquesson in Sillery and Fagnières.

• 1845: Presents a model of a bridge at the Universal Exhibition.

• 1848 - 1852: Second Republic. The February Revolution of 1848 results in the establishment of the Second Republic, marking a brief period of republican government in France. Political instability and social unrest continue, leading to the rise of Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte (Napoleon III) as President and later Emperor.

• 1848: Runs as a candidate for the medical corps of the Seine department in the constituent assembly elections.

• 1848: Publishes Institutions démocratiques des républicains de 1830, ou réformes économiques, administratives et politiques.

• 1852 - 1870: Second Empire. Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, nephew of Napoléon Bonaparte, proclaims himself Emperor Napoléon III in 1852, ushering in the Second Empire, characterized by authoritarian rule, industrialization, and urban development.

• 1855: Bordeaux Classification.

• 1860: Treaty with England.

• 1860: Publishes Culture de la vigne et vinification, promoting the Guyot pruning method, among other viti- and vinicultural improvements.

• 1860: Made a Knight of the Legion of Honor and appointed to study French viticulture to enhance France’s commercial export potential.

• 1860 - 1867: Conducts official mission to investigate the vineyards of France, resulting in the publication of the three-volume tome, l’Etude des vignobles de France in 1868.

• 1863: Phylloxera discovered in southern Rhône.

• 1865: Release of the English edition of “Culture of the Vine and Winemaking”, translated by Ludovic Marie.

• 1867: Promoted to Officer of the Legion of Honor.

• 1868: Publishes l’Étude des vignobles de France.

• 1870: Charles Baltet, French nurseryman and horticulturist from Troyes, names the Dr. Jules Guyot pear cultivar after Dr. Jules Guyot for his involvement in fruit growing. It continues to be grown primarily in southern France.

• 1870 - 1871: Franco-Prussian War and Paris Commune. The Franco-Prussian War culminates in France's defeat by Prussia and the capture of Emperor Napoléon III in 1870, leading to the establishment of the short-lived Paris Commune, a radical socialist government in Paris. Dr. Guyot flees Puteaux (near Paris) to Burgundy, where he moves in with Count of La Loyère, lord of Savigny-lès-Beaune.

• 1871 - 1914: The Belle Époque.

• 1870 - 1940: Third Republic. The collapse of the Second Empire results in the establishment of the Third Republic, which endured for several decades. The Third Republic faces political instability, social unrest, economic modernization, and colonial expansion.

• 1872: Dies at Count of La Loyère’s home in Savigny-lès-Beaune.

• 1875: Phylloxera arrives in Burgundy.

• 1927: The Champagne region is delimited (and later formalized under the French AOC framework). Posthumously (and ironically), Dr. Guyot’s name was invoked to exclude the Barrois and Aubois during the delimitation.

• 1935: Law of 6 May 1935 establishes the French appellation system, known as the Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée (AOC).

• 1995: Institut Universitaire de la Vigne et du Vin (AKA Dr. Jules Guyot Institute) at the University of Burgundy in Dijon established. The institute offers a degree in oenology.

1  Claudine Wolikow , “Doctor Jules Guyot (1807-1872), medical officer of health, defector and expert on the vineyards of France”, Territoires du vin [Online], 4 | 2012, 01 March 2012 and connection on 09 March 2024. Copyright: CC BY 4.0 License. URL: http://preo.u-bourgogne.fr/territoiresduvin/index.php?id=1387

2  Erika Mailman, “Meet Wine’s Worst Enemy, Phylloxera”, WineEnthusiast [Online], 05 May 2023 and connection on 10 March 2024. URL: https://www.wineenthusiast.com/culture/wine/wines-worst-enemy-phylloxera/

3  “Guyot Jules”, Wein.plus [Online], 06 November 2023 and connection on 09 March 2024. URL: https://glossary.wein.plus/guyot-jules

4  Guyot, Jules. “Culture of the vine and wine making” [Online], 1865 and connection on 28 Feb 2024 URL: http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-52756318

5  “Jules Guyot: The Man Behind the Guyot Vine Training System”, This Day in Wine History [Online], 16 June 2023 and connection on 09 March 2024. URL: https://thisdayinwinehistory.com/jules-guyot-the-man-behind-the-guyot-vine-training-system/

6  “Jules Guyot”, Wikidata.fr [Online], 30 December 2023 and connection on 09 March 2024. URL: https://www.wikidata.fr-fr.nina.az/Dr_Jules_Guyot.html

7  Lafon, René. “Changes to be made to vine pruning”, 1921. https://www.bibendum.com.au/products/poussard-pruning-by-rene-lafon