Grapevine

This isn't one of our vines, but one from our neighbour's parcel. He uses a huge grape-picking machine which shakes the grapes from the stems. So what you see here are the stalks that have been left behind. Any day now these vines will be pruned and the cycle begins again.

This is the steep vineyard where the enormous picker fell over and blocked access to our vineyard back in September.

We pick our grapes by hand so the whole bunch is picked. Our vines are pruned en gobelet - like an open goblet. Machine-harvested grapes have to be grown upright on wires.

The hefty task of pruning is looming. As we have a viscious icy wind blowing I'm happy to delay it until after Christmas.