André's Vine

It was on mothers' day in March 1999 that André finally got round to planting a vine cutting he had been given by Jim a while before. Soon after we went on holiday to Spain and soon after that he died. It wasn't until the day of his funeral, in the garden afterwards, that I noticed that the vine had taken and was flourishing.
By 2006 the Triomphe d'Alsace vine was producing a sufficient quantity of grapes for me to attempt my first batch of wine. I was really pleased with the results. The following year wasn’t as good, but that didn’t put me off having a third attempt, despite a terrible summer weather-wise, and having to compete with greedy wood pigeons when harvesting the modest yield. Here's a picture of what was produced. The demijohn on the left is just Triomphe D'Alsace grape, on the right is a mix of grape, apple and elderflower. It hasn't been sampled yet...


Part of the vine in September 2007