Springtime means tons of new growth on the vines—so it’s time for us to reel it in! Thinning and suckering are important steps to controlling the growth of the vines.

After what we hope is the last frost, we start the thinning process. It's our first of many passes through the vineyard during the season. Thinning removes all of the extra shoots from the spurs, which grow up from the arms. We trim down to two shoots per spur, which helps the grapes ripen more fully, as they have more of the plant's attention.

Suckering is a part of the thinning process. When we sucker the plants, we remove all of the growth from the trunk and the undersides of the plant's arms. This pruning helps the plants send their nutrients and energy directly to the fruit instead of being wasted on excess leaves. More nutrients for the grapes means tastier fruit!

It’s really hard to thin beautiful little grapes off the vines—it’s heart breaking. But if we don’t do it while they're young, the plants will waste precious energy on extra fruit they don't need. Left alone, the plants wouldn't be able to ripen all of the fruit on the vine, so we help them along by choosing the best grapes to mature and clipping the rest.

This is a very laborious job, but it's fun too. You spend the entire day on the ground hanging out with the grapes, listening to music and cracking jokes—it feels like the grapes enjoy the extra attention. Next month we hope to finish our first pass and then we'll begin the next round of suckering and mowing.