The secret life of a vine shoot in Beaujolais

What Is a Vine Shoot (Sarment)?

A year in the life of a sarment

The sarment is the woody cane that grows from the vine each year, starting as a tender green shoot in spring. As the growing season progresses, it undergoes a process known as “augustation”—hardening off and becoming lignified by late summer. By autumn, it has transformed into a brown, woody structure that will be pruned during the vine’s winter dormancy.

Biologically, the vine shoot is not just structural—it’s a vital transport network. Inside the sarment, xylem and phloem tissues carry water, minerals, and nutrients between the roots and the leaves. It also stores starches and plays a role in the plant’s energy management throughout the year.

Why the vine shoot matters in viticulture

From a viticultural perspective, sarments are crucial. They’re the basis of the vine’s fruiting potential: buds that develop on these shoots will carry the next year’s grape clusters.
Managing them through careful pruning is key to regulating yield, vine balance, and overall health.

In short, the sarment is not a leftover—it’s a vital growth organ, central to the physiology, productivity, and renewal of the vine.

In the heart of Beaujolais

The Beaujolais landscape and its impact on vine growth

Stretching over 15,000 hectares between the southern edge of Burgundy and the Rhône Valley, the Beaujolais region is a patchwork of geological contrasts. To the north, decomposed granite dominates—perfect for the Gamay grape’s finesse and aromatic lift. Further south, clay-limestone soils support more supple, rounder expressions.

This geological diversity doesn’t just influence the wine—it shapes the growth pattern and vigor of the vine shoots themselves. In granite-rich soils, for example, sarments tend to be thinner and more vertical, responding to the well-draining but nutrient-scarce terroir. On heavier soils, they may grow longer and thicker, requiring more management during pruning.

Pruning traditions: the art of the gobelet

In Beaujolais, the vine’s architecture is more than a technical matter—it’s a cultural choice. The dominant pruning method here is the “gobelet” style, a bush-like form where shoots emerge from short arms arranged in a crown around the trunk.
It’s a practice inherited from Roman times, especially suited to Gamay and the region’s hilly terrain.

Pruning is performed during the vine’s dormancy, between November and March, and it directly determines how many sarments will develop—and where. Each cut is a decision: how much vigor to retain, how much fruit to allow. It’s in this quiet winter ritual that the fate of the next vintage is shaped.

In Beaujolais, vine shoots are not just agricultural growths; they’re expressions of terroir, technique, and time.

The cultural legacy of the sarment

The origins of the Sarmentelles Festival

Long before they were considered an energy source or soil amendment, vine shoots were fuel for celebration.
As early as the 17th century, Beaujolais winemakers would gather their freshly pruned sarments into piles and set them ablaze in the village streets. These winter fires weren’t just practical—they were ritualistic. They marked the end of pruning, the renewal of the vineyard, and the social fabric of winegrowing life.

This tradition was revived in 1989 with the launch of Les Sarmentelles, a festival held each November in Beaujeu, the historic capital of the Beaujolais region. The name is a fusion of “sarment” and “sentinelle”—a poetic nod to the vines’ guardianship and resilience.

Sarments, light, and Beaujolais Nouveau

Today, the Sarmentelles festival draws over 20,000 visitors from more than 20 countries, all converging to celebrate the release of the Beaujolais Nouveau. The highlight of the event? A night-time torchlight procession through Beaujeu, where volunteers wheel carts filled with flaming vine shoots, casting flickering halos of orange light on the cobbled streets.

At midnight sharp, the “mise en perce” takes place—the ceremonial tapping of the first barrel of Beaujolais Nouveau.
This moment links agricultural tradition, seasonal rhythm, and modern wine commerce in a single, joyful act. And at its heart is the humble sarment: a carrier of fire, of community, of story.

A biomass goldmine: sarments as a renewable resource

How much biomass are we talking about?

Every hectare of vineyard in Beaujolais produces between 1.5 and 2 tons of vine shoots each year. Multiply that by the region’s 15,000 hectares, and you have a staggering total: up to 30,000 tons of sarments annually. Once considered useless agricultural waste, these can now be measured in megawatt-hours.

How much energy are we talking about? Roughly 3.5 MWh per ton of dried sarments—enough to heat small buildings or power boilers with high efficiency. That’s equivalent to 700 to 900 liters of heating oil per hectare, making vine shoots a serious contender in the transition to low-carbon farming.

Alternatives to burning: the new circular economy

While open-field burning was once the norm—often done for convenience—environmental regulations and climate awareness are shifting practices.
Many Beaujolais growers now chip and mulch their sarments directly into the soil. This not only recycles organic matter, but also improves soil health and structure, reduces disease pressure, and saves fuel costs.

Others go further, investing in biomass heating systems powered entirely by vine shoots. Some wineries have installed pelletizing units to process their own pruned wood into fuel, achieving energy autonomy with a return on investment in just a few years.

More ambitious still is Bio Énergies Beaujolaises, a public-private cooperative (SEMOP) near Charentay. This cutting-edge facility uses vine shoots in methanisation, combining them with other agricultural waste to produce biomethane—a clean, grid-ready renewable gas.

In a region known for tradition, these innovations show how the Beaujolais is embracing a 21st-century approach to sustainability, starting from the vineyard floor.

Sarments of the future: innovation, research, and new uses

From vineyard to laboratory

What happens when researchers and engineers look at vine shoots not as waste, but as raw material?

In recent years, laboratories across France and beyond have begun extracting resveratrol—a powerful antioxidant found in grape skins and vine wood—for use in the cosmetics industry. Sarments, it turns out, are rich in polyphenols with promising anti-aging and anti-inflammatory properties. From vineyard to skincare serum, the journey is surprisingly short.

In the world of eco-materials, sarments are also gaining traction. Some innovators are transforming shredded vine shoots into biodegradable plant stakes, composite boards, or even vineyard trellising systems, reducing dependence on imported woods like acacia.

And at the cutting edge: bio-batteries made from vine shoot fibers. Experimental projects are testing whether sarment-derived carbon can be used in low-impact energy storage, creating fully compostable electrical components.

The environmental perspective

All of this happens under a growing push for greener viticulture. Regulations on open-field burning are tightening across France. In Beaujolais, burning is only permitted under strict conditions: low wind, no pollution alerts, and minimum distances from homes.

Studies show that switching from burning to valorisation (energy or soil use) can reduce emissions of certain pollutants by over 90%—including harmful dioxins and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).

In this context, the vine shoot becomes a symbol of transition: from pollution to solution, from linear to circular agriculture.