Marco Simonit shares his passion of preserving vine DNA

18 Oct 2018: An unusual discussion was about to take place at the stylishly designed tasting room of Fine+Rare Wines's well-appointed Hong Kong office located on a high floor of a commercial building with spectacular hillside views of the densely populated Mid-Levels residential area and the rooftops of the re-energised Lan Kwai Fong restaurant and bar area.

The barrel and cork inspired wine display corridor at Fine+Rare's brand new office in Hong Kong

The speaker was Marco Simonit of world-renowned peripatetic grape vine pruners Simonit & Sirch who count such prestigious properties as Château Latour, Domaine Leroy, Château d'Yquem, Château Ausone, Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande, Roederer, Bellavista and Silver Oak amongst their clients.  Marco recounted how a phone call to Angelo Gaja brought in his first pruning and consulting contract and set the course of development for the company.  Since its inception in Friuli, Italy in 2003, Simonit & Sirch has now established itself as a world leading consulting company in the techniques of vine pruning and training (www.simonitesirch.com) .  The team of 20 technicians is committed to training a new generation of vinegrowers, using a modern pruning technique. 

Marco Simonit has written two bookings on pruning techniques: this shows the second book on cordon trained vines

His first book on Guyot trained vines

On the occasion of Marco's brief visit to Hong Kong, Fine+Rare invited a group of sommeliers, media and other wine experts to attend a chat with Marco to learn about their important work in global vineyards to help clients who care about the longevity of their vineyards to save old and disease-infected vines. Marco asserted that being organic or biodynamic was not enough to preserve the vines' DNA. Poor vine health affects production yield, quality of wines and eventually the style of wine - the heritage of every domaine, chateau, estate.


Vines are pruned year after year so that they will continue to produce the desired yield and quality of fruit the following year. However, aggressive or carelessly administered pruning inflicts potentially mortal wounds to vines, allowing fungus and other diseases to infect the weakened vines. The most talked about grapevine trunk disease is esca, but there are others too such as eutypa dieback and black dead arm.  Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc have long been known to show much more susceptibility to these diseases than other grape varieties, but this is about to change too with Pinot Noir and Chardonnay also displaying susceptibility. Marco showed us pictures of infected vines when dissected and how the pruning wounds and fungus infection could affect sap flow.  Marco thus explained that the infected vines would not be able to interact with the terroir.  The infection rate can be as much as an alarming rate of 10% of vines in some vineyards every year.

Marco's passion was felt by everyone in the room!

Simonit & Sirch's mission is to educate vineyard workers on how to prune to prolong the longevity of vines, and to develop a new school of thinking in pruning techniques. They now have a network of 12 pruning schools in Italy, and they have formed an international research and information sharing alliance, working with universities in Bordeaux, California (UC Davis), Stellenbosch and Melbourne. To save disease-ridden vines, they practise meticulous surgical operations using vertical chainsawing motions so as not to disrupt the sap flow. They will do everything possible so as to prolong the lives of vines, without having to pull them out. During the past six years, his company has operated on 11,000 vines using this surgical method. If cures are indeed not possible, they would consider grafting techniques, by grafting preserved young shoots extracted from healthy old vines onto rootstocks.


Marco knew he was not addressing a group of wine producers amongst this group of Hong Kong audience but he talked to us with so much enthusiasm and passion that it was not difficult to imagine the tremendous impact he and his team were having on vineyards around the world.  I had heard him speak before, about 3 years ago, but I felt that this time, he delivered his speech with even more passion and spoke with much more conviction and vigour than the last time, sharing with us his enriched experience. This is amazing work that is keeping old vines alive, preserving the vines' DNA and producers' heritage.  We must all spread the word about the importance of preserving old vines!

You can watch Marco talk about his work here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhV7Fc01u_A - Ted X


Fine+Rare Wines were extremely hospitable and had prepared Philipponnat Clos des Goisses and Château Latour, as well as a generous spread of charcuterie and cheese for this tea-time chat. Before the talk started, Amy Yim, their Client Experience Manager, proudly showed us the brand new tasting room called HOME.  The centrepiece was a barrel-inspired corridor, fitted with wine-bottle display cabinets and cork tree bark decorating the ceiling.  All bottles were labelled with price tags.  One side of the cabinets showed an eclectic collection from international wineries, whereas the other side featured more classic showstoppers including bottles of DRC, Domaine Leroy and other top Burgundian producers. The bottle of 2015 Leroy Musigny particularly stood out for its lack of a price tag!

Amy Yim, Client Experience Manager at Fine+Rare Wines, Hong Kong

We only scratched the surface of Marco's work but this was truly one of the more interesting wine-related talks I have been to in Hong Kong.  Thank you Amy for inviting me!