After a long, cool, wet spring building up the water table in the soil, we now have very hot, sunny weather. Of course our vines really revel in these conditions, and they start to grow very, very quickly – almost out of control. This very rapid development of the shoots is known as vine vigour, and will hopefully slow down as the grape clusters start to develop during ‘veraison’ – the moment when the recognisable fruit starts to develop. The problem is that if the canopy grows unchecked then this will simply detract from the quality of the grapes, as the excess foliage competes for the resources of the vine plant. This is why we spend long periods during the summer removing leaves and thinning the canopy.

Of course vines are natural climbers, which is why we use wires to train them. Unfortunately they do not distinguish between different types of wire, which is why today’s photo shows a vine plotting its escape from the vineyard by means of a telephone cable. (Yes, we still have some overhead telephone cables out here in the wilds of Galicia – fibre optics are merely a dream of the future!)

After a long, cool, wet spring building up the water table in the soil, we now have very hot, sunny weather. Of course our vines really revel in these conditions, and they start to grow very, very quickly – almost out of control. This very rapid development of the shoots is known as vine vigour, and will hopefully slow down as the grape clusters start to develop during ‘veraison’ – the moment when the recognisable fruit starts to develop. The problem is that if the canopy grows unchecked then this will simply detract from the quality of the grapes, as the excess foliage competes for the resources of the vine plant. This is why we spend long periods during the summer removing leaves and thinning the canopy.

Of course vines are natural climbers, which is why we use wires to train them. Unfortunately they do not distinguish between different types of wire, which is why today’s photo shows a vine plotting its escape from the vineyard by means of a telephone cable. (Yes, we still have some overhead telephone cables out here in the wilds of Galicia – fibre optics are merely a dream of the future!)