After leaving so many empty bottles behind us we felt we owed it to the wine industry to continue learning about what it takes to put all that alcohol laced juice in those clever glass carrying cases. Pruning is the name of this game! 
Yeah, That’s Right…Pruning!
Living in Paso Robles we obviously have an abundance of access to vineyards as well as people that know far more than us about the art, and science that go into wine. A friend of ours has a backyard vineyard that he let us loose in to prune and the first thing I must say is that I have a new found respect for those men and women that do that kind of work for however many hours a day…I did it for an hour and let me tell you…
…but I digress.
Honestly, it was pretty fun and it’s great to see that side of things. There’s just something about getting out into the vineyard and getting dirty. Annie had vine twigs coming out of her sweatshirt all day, and even got a blister. The goal of pruning is to get rid of all the previous year’s dead growth and make room for the new growth coming in Spring. You prune back the vines so that the strongest sections can really prosper and produce good fruit. It’s a little Darwinism at work…survival of the fittest (with a little help from some sharp clippers).
We would strongly encourage all wine lovers to start exploring other aspects of wine so there can be an understanding of the manual labor, art, science, and agriculture that goes into the romance of a glass of wine.
A big thank to Jeff W. (known as Papa Jeff to us) and his son Jeff for letting us jump on the pruning train…good times guys!! Can’t wait to taste the fruit from the vines we destroyed!
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That is what I want to do get involved in what you did, learning to prune the wines, and how awesome to have your own backyard vineyard, is his garage set up to make his wine too? That would be the next learning step watching him do that….I’m in… Sorry the slideshow of pictures didn’t work, would have been nice to see it. Maybe you can send them separately.
Hey Bev…the work behind the wine is so awesome, it’s worth getting in to. Yes, our friend makes a little wine in his garage and we’re hoping to help with that process as well. I was having trouble with the slideshow in my AOL browser, but my Google Chrome browser shows the slideshow fine. Sometimes these technologies don’t work across all platforms. Which browser do you use?
My browser is Internet Explorer, hope you send more pictures of you learning how to make wine/& bottle it, when the time comes.
We will send more pics for sure…and once we get this slideshow thing worked out I will let you know so you can see the pictures. Thanks Bev!!
Ok Matt, sounds good. Have a great pi day.
Thanks Bev, Happy Pi Day indeed!
Paso Robles offers great wine making experiences – pruning, harvest, wine making, bottling. You don’t have to go far to enjoy the full spectrum. I spent today helping a friend prune his vineyard. It was a beautiful day outdoors and I was compensated with a couple of beers at Firestone. Life is good!
Totally agree, Mark! Tons to do around here in every aspect of the winemaking process…and nothing like a few beers to make it all worth your while! Cheers!!!
Fascinating, I’m learning so much about the wine industry from your reports
! Thank You – Happy St Patrick’s Day to you both!
Hey Denise! Glad you’re learning from our little follies! We really don’t know what we’re doing but figure the best way to fake it is to get out there and do “stuff”!!! hehehe. Happy St. Paddy’s to you, too…did you get to drink any green wine???
Thanks for the reminder of all the hard work that goes into the beverage I enjoy so much! I haven’t had a chance to get hands-on like this in a vineyard (yet!).
Hey David…it was fun getting out into the vineyard! Makes the wine taste that much better when you get your hands a little dirty. It was just enough work to give us an appreciation for all those guys we see doing all the hard work in the vineyards!
thanks Matt, nice work, and what a beautiful view.
Glad you finally got to see the slideshow, Bev! Sorry for the technical difficulties!!! Cheers!