A Tool for every purpose

Now that the buds have started to form it seems that they're not very well-behaved. They sprout up all over the vine, not just at the top where we've tied the branch to the wire. You can buy some special chemical which burns off the unwanted "pampres", or there's this special tool I've now bought for 40 euros and I'm damn well going to make it earn it's keep!

The special tool is a cross between a riding crop and an iron poker, and has a vicious blade with a hook at one end to cut the pampres off. Last year it seemed much easier just to use the side of my boot to scrape them off, but after a couple of weeks my 70 euro boots started to fall apart, so maybe the guy who invented the "de-papre-eur" had a point after all. Here's the end result of the vine pictured above.