Neatness counts

Over the past week, the growers have been working to trim the grape vines. The first step seems to be a manual inspection to ensure the vines are properly attached to their guide wires and that the actual grapes are not in danger of being lopped off. The second step is to drive a tractor with spinning blades over each row, cutting the excess growth from the tops and sides of the vines.

These vines have been trimmed in the past week or so.

I believe that the reason for the trimming is to guide the vines' energy into the grape bunches rather than into producing more tendrils and leaves and, of course, too many grape bunches. The result of the trimming is a very neatly squared-off vineyard. The vines are trimmed at least twice during the growing season. I suspect that it depends mostly on the weather and rate of growth.