Grape vines are related to ivy. They will grow about as wild and woolly if they are not trimmed. I was driving down to see my brother in Dallas, Oregon today and saw some vines which were in the process of being trimmed. It's amazing how much of the body of the vine the vine dressers remove. On a Pinot Noir planting all that's left are two stringy vines. What you see is a huge central vine about three inches in diameter and then a pencil thin growth of vine coming out from each side. If these vines were never trimmed they'd end up looking a lot like a blackberry bramble. They also wouldn't produce much in the way of fruit. They'd expend all of their energy growing more vines. Someone just driving by who didn't know much about vineyards would think that these people were killing the plants. It looks pretty grim when you see the pile of vines that have been cut off next to the scraggly few they've left in place. When I was growing up my dad had some rose bushes that he tended in the front of our yard. Every year these bushes would produce prolific amounts of blooms, and every year my dad would cut them back to almost nothing. I was reminded of those roses when I was looking at the grape vines. People would come by as my dad was trimming the roses and cry because he was destroying the rose bush. I'm not sure if they ever came back the next summer and saw the results of that trimming, or if they were ever able to put all of that together. My dad was a great gardener. It's a skill I did not inherit. The plants that we have in our landscaping are most notable for their durability.
I wonder if anything thing else is like those vines? Do we need to be cut back? I think it's true of church growth. You almost always see a decline in a church before it really takes off and starts to grow. I wonder if it could be true of national economies as well. Maybe we have to experience a bit of trimming back so that we can really focus on what's important and make the whole works healthy again. I have no idea. I've never understood anything related to the economy.
I do know that good pruning is a very necessary step in great wine. It's a long-term process. They are out in the dark, damp days of January now trimming back the vines. When bud break occurs and the fruit starts to set they'll go out again and trim off most of the forming fruit clusters. Then as harvest approaches they might go out again and remove more of the fruit. It's a very strange to go to a vineyard a few weeks from harvest and see that they've removed a LOT of fruit and laid it out on the ground to rot. But I can't argue with the results. This kind of care, and knowledge produces great wine. I'm glad they know what they're doing, I hope and pray our elected officials know what they are doing as well.