This week we took some time off from the orchard to prep the vineyard. Dr. McEachern's wine class was coming out to pruned vines and the grounds were in desperate need of some manicuring. Armed with weedwhackers and a walk-behind mower, me and two other students cleaned up the property quite nicely. 

The vineyard isn't a huge property and the portion actually inhabited by vines is much smaller. The vines vary in age, some thirty years old and some only a few months. Blanc du Bois is one variety we have planted there. 

After we cleaned up the property we moved on to pruning. We had only a few rows of juvenile vines to prune, and many more mature vines. The juveniles were still almost entirely in their grow tubes, only a few shoots peeking out. We pruned them back to two shoots initially, but decided to leave four after some shoots were damaged by wind while we were pruning. With four left, we have a much greater probability of one surviving even after inclement weather. 

Daniel training a mature vine