While spring in Texas can be a very short season we are blessed with unlimited opportunity to enjoy its every nuance now that the grapevines are awake. There’s nothing like strolling in the vineyard when final pruning has been completed, seeing the tidy rows of trunks and cordons and reveling in the feeling of accomplishment and the sense of order. Then before we know it bud break begins and I still find it amazing that they can transform almost overnight from what appear to be gnarled stumps of wood to vibrant green canopies. They are deceptively beautiful in this early stage, with the promise of fruit to come and little hint of the disorder that their exuberant growth will create without vigilant management. There are glorious hours to be spent in the field thinning shoots and moving catch-wires, whether it be warm and sunny or cool and cloudy.
