On the table.

Apparently, there is no room for discussion, the table grapes are leafing out.  Bud break is happening in all three varieties of the only grapes in Vinoland that don't go into making wine; July Muscat, Crimson Seedless and, pictured here, Red Globe.  We are having rather nice weather at the moment, so I'm expecting them to go crazy this coming week.  Leaf away, little fellas.

Chips and spread.

Yes, here it is, the obligatory, annual, first pile-of-prunings photograph.  I managed to finish pruning Vinoland's table-grapes today.  It took me a whopping 10 minutes to prune the remaining two vines.  I was exhausted afterwards, hee, hee.  The pruning of the table grapes created a small pile of vine-prunings, small enough that I could probably pick the whole thing up quite readily with both arms.
It's a completely different story when I get to the wine-grapes. 
It still amazes me, each and every year, how much vegetative-material the vines produce.  It's a viticultural miracle that nutrients in the soil combined with water and sunshine can create so much vegetation, shoots and leaves galore.  (Well, pruning determines the number of shoots, but Mother Nature dictates shoot-length.)  And clusters of grapes on top of that.
Of course, all that pruned wood needs to be disposed of.  The Napa Valley Grape Growers outline, in their Best Practices, an online educative resource, the four main ways of disposing of prunings; chop and disc; chop and cover crop; chip with a chipper; burn like billy-o.  (I predict, in the not so distant future that burning will be banned outright in the Napa Valley, even though it is the most efficient way of disposing of grapevine material.)  In Vinoland, we chip and spread - a practice that works best for our modest vineyard operation - returning all that vegetative matter back to the ground from whence it came.

The party's over.

Yes, it is time to return to reality; time for the party muselets to be thrown away; time for the New Year.
On the whole, I've been having a pretty slow start to 2019.  I did, sort of, start pruning today - one table-grapevine to be exact - before it began to rain.  Gotta start somewhere, titter, titter.  One vine at a time.
The weather has been quite damp this January and it has cramped my outdoors-style significantly.  I have, however, had time to read several books so it hasn't been a total loss.  And it's not like the vineyard is going anywhere.  I'll get to wherever I'm going, eventually.

The Daily Globe.

In today's news, Vinoland's table grapes are also going through veraison.  The Red Globe grapes are enthused.  It just occurred to me that I have never posted a photograph of the Orange Muscat vines doing their veraison-thing.  Well, there's a good reason for that.  Veraison in white grapes is just not as dramatic as veraison in black grapes.  Grapes going from green to purple, versus grapes going from green to slightly less green, is way more paparazzi-worthy.
Veraison, read all about it on Vinsanity.

It's July already.

It is July Muscat time already.  When I got home from work last night, Vinomaker suggested that I take a peek at Vinoland's table grapes. Confound it, not that I'm an expert or anything, but I'd say that my one, white table grapevine is going through budbreak.  Sigh.
In my haste, last weekend, to prune through as much of the Syrah as I possibly could I didn't even think to check the table grapes.  There are three table grape vines in Vinoland; July Muscat, Crimson Seedless and Red Globe.  The budwood for these vines came from a small demonstration vineyard that used to grow alongside the student vineyard at Napa Valley College (alas, bulldozed out years ago), so I am a tad sentimentally attached to these vines.  The three vines are prolific producers, most years bearing more fruit than Vinomaker and I can eat ourselves, so we share.  I will be pruning this vine today to ensure we have an abundance of table grapes in the summer.

Veraison, even in the table grapes.

Yes, even in the table grapes.  Vinoland's Red Globe table grapes are as enthused as the wine grapes and are blushing at the prospect of an early harvest.  Not that I harvest the Red Globe, or the July Muscat, or the Crimson Seedless - I just eat them as I go, perhaps leaving a few for the birds. 
That's enough veraison for this week.  I'm exhausted.

Just Because...

...I'm a girl, a Vinogirl, and I like grapes and shoes.
These are my favourite shoes of the moment and the last bunch of Crimson Seedless from the garden. They are very, very tasty...and the grapes aren't bad either.