This old Zinfandel vine still provides beauty and bountiful fruit here in the Napa Valley.
The owner drove by and we chatted for a bit…his grandfather planted these vines in 1900, and these grapes will be harvested tomorrow.
This is a repost from earlier today… somehow G+ downsized my original image and in trying to fix things, I lost all the previous comments & +1s.
#napavalleyvinyards #napavalley
Ready for the Crush
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In trying to fix the downsized pic, I lost the nice comments from +Alun Allcock & +cesar jaranilla (but thank you!)
YUM! and cool shot!
no probs what are friend are for>love you
Nice image ! I did not realize that some grape plants could live that long?
Yes, +Paul Johnston, once they lose their leaves, there are some pretty gnarly looking old vines. The newer ones are 'trained' to grow somewhat flat along the row, while the old ones have branches going out in all directions.
Many vineyards have had to be ripped out over the years due to various pests and diseases. It's a relatively small section of this property that has the old Zinfandel.
I do not know much about grapes used in wine making. Do most wine making grapes taste sweet as far as eating goes or are they bitter or sour?
Beautiful shot +Dave Bell
+Paul Johnston I'm no expert, but it depends a lot on the variety…these have a fairly high sugar content and would be pretty sweet.. the primary problem for eating is the texture. There are seeds and the skin is much tougher than typical table grapes.
There are some vintners that sell a 'fresh crush' of some of their grapes, which is quite different (in a good way!) from your typical Welches concord grape juice.