Summer work in the vineyards

Today was a little bit cooler here at Domaine Jones - that means not up in the high 30s. A cloudy sky meant that we could work in the vineyards until lunchtime.  Yes, there is still work to be done even though the summer holiday feeling is here.

It looks like the harvest will be 10 days late compared to last year so this means that some of our grapes, mainly those from the 100 year old carignan and grenache vines, will be out in the vineyards until the end of October.

So we have to make sure that they ripen properly and that they stay healthy.  This morning's job was to take off some of the leaves and branches so that the sun and air can get to the grapes.

Here is a picture of before and after on the same vine.  On the second photo, although there are still a lot of leaves, if you look carefully you can see the grapes (and JM's head).