Based on ethnographic data, the author addresses the relationship between mechanical tillage and soil life in organic viticulture, in a context of renewed interest in understanding and managing soils in relation with climate change and its multiple environmental consequences. Two conflicting point of view concerning mechanical tillage are put into perspective. On one side, mechanical tillage constitutes a fundamental basis in organic viticulture, particularly because it allows the microbial life of the soil to be effectively conditioned. On the other side (i.e., the agroecological perspective), other winegrowers aim to limit, or even avoid, mechanical tillage, in order to favor a dynamic approach to the ecosystem/soil relationship by seeking to interact with the processes of natural regulation, in particular, with regard to fertility issues. In accordance with this distinction, two types of relationship to soil life can be identified. While the first relation is about harnessing the life of soil from a productive (anthropocentric) standpoint, the other one is about understanding it mostly in terms of ecosystem interdependencies.