Friday, October 25, 2013

Sunrise over an abandoned vineyard

There are several abandoned vineyard parcels among the active ones out behind our house. The posts and vines are still there, but have been left untended for years. The vines still produce grapes, but the bunches are too numerous and the grapes are too small. They really need the hard and constant pruning to produce well.

The sun had just cleared the horizon when I snapped this photo.

When a grower gets old, infirm, or dies, and he has no one to take over for him or to sell to, his parcels are left to go wild. It's a bit sad, but the abandoned parcels do provide some habitat for wildlife among the tended vineyards. And they can be pretty.

5 comments:

  1. That's so sad...I guess the youngsters don't want to do all the hard work of being a vigneron.
    It's a sad photo.

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  2. There may be more than one inheritor, and they ca';t agree... meanwhile, no-one tends the land. And the lawyers are the ultimate beneficiaries! P.

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  3. Are there often any leftover grapes that might be usable?

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  4. Do the vines wither and die, or do they keep producing grapes?

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  5. virginiac, in some cases, that's true. They say there are too many grapes being grown these days what with all the competition from new world wines.

    pauline, also true in some cases, and that's really sad!

    mary, not really in the abandoned vineyards, but often there are in the tended vineyards. Ken's made jelly from them a couple of times.

    starman, they keep producing, but a lower quality fruit. I'll bet some wildlife benefits, though.

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