Pruning vines this time of year fills me with hope. Joan does this task for our 7000+ vines, but she usually leaves the job for the small experimental plot near the road for me to do. Hope - because the weather is intermittently gorgeously warm, the earth begins to smell like Spring and I can fantasize about the wine for this coming vintage - 2010. The vine buds are beginning to get fuzzy which means bud burst is at hand. The Gewirtztraminer in the experimental plot got a little wild last year. They were struggling so we decided to let them do what they wanted to do. As a result most of them looked like a bush. I flailed and cut away to tame them into their proper shape - one upright trunk and one arm or cordon snaking along the lowest trellis wire.
As I cut the unwanted grape vine wood, the pruning wounds were a brilliant green (alive!) and glistened with bleeding sap. I thought it might taste like grape juice, or wine or at least sweet, but no, just water. Very watery water. Clean, fresh, cool. Grape vine blood. Maybe there's a vampire screen play in that!
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