The vine and the bine

Our vine has lots of ripening grapes. However, we shan't be making wine with them. Some years back we had a big vine covering a pergola and every October we harvested the grapes and spent a weekend wine making. It was left to ferment etc and then bottled. We calculated that it cost £1 bottle to produce. And each year the wine got progressively worse. We still have about 20 bottles of 2011 vintage in the wine cooler. Perhaps it has improved with age. I doubt it.

That vine is no more and the pergola was pulled down when we had the "glass room" built

Hopefully we will be able to eat the grapes on the new vine.

The hops are beginning to flower but we shan't be opening a micro brewery.