Appears in
Oxford Companion to Wine

By Jancis Robinson

Published 2006

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tractor, the most common vineyard machine. Tractor dimensions have had a significant impact on vineyard design. In many parts of Europe where tractors replaced horses, tractor designers obliged by creating either narrow, or row-straddling, tractors (known in France as tracteurs-enjambeurs). The narrowest vineyard tractors are not much wider than their drivers, about 80 cm/31 in. In the New World, however, vineyards were changed to accommodate the tractors, which included row spacings of 3 to 4 m (10–13 ft) to allow early and wide tractor models between the rows. Modern New World tractors are much narrower and can fit down rows less than 2 m apart.