Thinning out grapes help please

[busylizzie]

We inherited a large grapevine when we moved house last year and had loads of small grapes. This year I'm trying to get on top of thinning them out a bit so that we have fewer, bigger ones.

So, at the moment pretty much every stem that's sprouting has one big and one smaller bunch starting, like this. What should I be taking out? Do I just take out the bunches? Or the whole stem? And how many? Should I get rid of all the mini ones and say, a third of the bigger ones?

Lots of questions!

[fiveravens]

I'd cut off the smaller bunches and, later on, thin the grapes in the remaining bunches. (Provided it's a dessert grape - if it's a wine grape, there's no point thinning the grapes in the bunches).

[busylizzie]

No idea what it is, is there any way I can find out? The grapes were edible last year, but so small and seeded that it wasn't really worth the effort! They weren't hugely sweet though - might that mean they are a wine grape?

[Rhona]

Can I hijack this thread a little bit? Is that ok? Our grapevine is the opposite - produces only two or three bunches of grapes, but they taste completely divine - really sweet and a bit like a really nice dessert wine with a trace of muskiness. We have it in a massive pot and prune it in the Autumn - it's bursting with life at the moment, but what can we do to maximize the actual fruit?