Eugenia Keegan

I should be apologizing repeatedly for not posting for ages, but something keeps me from getting this done (the posting, not the apologizing!). Not sure why. I am always pleased after I have chronicled what I am doing. But then there is this nagging sense that my days have no significance and this is egotistical bullcrap. Either way, I do enjoy it once I put my focus heretois*.

After working on the pruning videos I realized that the two styles of pruning shown were very useful and applied to many situations, but were not specific to the so-called premise of this exercise, Old Vine Grenache. The older bush pruned or spur pruned vines are fundamentally handled the same, but the look is very different. I asked my good friend (with whom I am having dinner this very evening….might be just the kick in the tuchus that I needed to post), if he would kindly help me demonstrate pruning for the style of growing common to most old vines (not just grenache).

Here is Jean-Marc Espinasse of Domaine Rouge-Bleu (http://rouge-bleu.com) with a demonstration of head/spur pruning in his outrageous Old Vine Grenache vineyard, Lunatique (the sound is a bit rough but the images are lovely; listen carefully for a first class pruning lesson):

*hertois: some knockoff of the legalese heretofore, heretowith, etc. But here, is is is.

While working on the pruning videos, Chad Vargas, Vineyard Manager at Adelsheim Vineyard came by to check on the aliens in the vineyard, and to be sure that I did not methodically murder all of his babies. The good news: an up to the minute look at the lead up to harvest 2011…yes we are thinking about that already!

And while we are here, let’s finish up that pruning lesson.

Read All About IT. Yes, I think that this warrants that kind of headline. Somewhere in the back of my mind was the obvious next step in blog survival, videos. What grabbed that video thought from the back of my mind and launched it into cyber space? It was a simple discussion of what we in the production side of the industry take in quotidian stride, the annual cycle of the grapevine. It was February for heaven’s sake, the winter sun was out and the countryside was full of activity. Vineyards were being pruned throughout the Willamette Valley, the first of many activities that will end in another harvest.
It became as clear as a lens with vaseline that it was the time to focus on video.

OK, so that was a ……. start. But please let me introduce you to my video guru Dan Kaufman.

He has been instrumental in taking these adventures from that above to this below. Video #1: