Any grape vine experts willing to help a relative newb?

I'd say you are doing pretty well already, but as I'm no expert in grapes I leave any detailed thoughts to someone-else.

Just one other thing, my own experience has been that growing grapes outdoors is not an easy job in this country so some idea of where you live etc might be a good idea to add to the info you already gave.

Hi TAC and welcome.
I know nothing about grapes except that, to identify a variety, you would need to know the colour of the grape when ripe and an idea of size and whether its seedless or not would help.

I agree with the other answers. They all tend to look the same at this time of year. Some need to be in a greenhouse to get a good crop (depending on your location of course)

Welcome to the vine TAC. We are all here to help each other. Your vine looks fine but I would say that some of the growth on the two rods needs to be reduced. I stop the shoots two leaves beyond a bunch and then treat them as if they were tomatoes, remove the side shoots. This puts the energy into the production of fruit. If the shoots don’t have any grapes then pinch out the tips and side shoot. Don’t cut any of the growth at this stage but it should snap of at a joint easily. In the depth of winter when the vine is dormant cut back to a spur on the rods and then let it start all over again. If the main rods are not producing fruit detach them from their supports in the winter and let them lie on the ground. When they begin to shoot re attach them to their supports. This should encourage the production of shoots and flowers. As far as variety goes, difficult to tell at this stage and even if you have pictures of the fruit it is still difficult. One of the common ones sold in the UK is Black Hamburg. As it says black and a desert grape late to ripen. Mine is on a south facing wall in Normandy and doesn’t really get sweet until mid to late September.

Hope that helps.

Hi TAC,

Although there are thousands of grape varieties there are limited numbers that will ripen successfully in the U.K. Having said that, it is still not possible to identify a variety easily. Hopefully it is a dessert rather than a wine grape. You will be able to tell this by the thickness of the skin. Wine grapes normally have a thicker chewier skin. There are also black varieties which have red rather than white juice which should narrow down the choices.
I have to disagree with Roitelet about stopping growth two leaves after the fruit. The leaves are the powerhouse of the vine and are required to produce good fruit. Some experts say twelve to fifteen leaves are required in this country after each bunch. Side shoots should be pinched out after one leaf otherwise it becomes just a mass of foliage.
When pruning in winter remember that the vine only produces flowers on the wood that grew in the previous year. Choose a cane from the previous year and cut back to three buds.
Just remember that there is a wealth of information online about the growth and training of grapevines.

David

Hi TAC nothing to add except to ask your location

Wow, thank you all, so to answer a few of the questions, the Grapes come out red... eventually. This is the first year i have pruned out the growth with no bunches and reduced the bunches to one per shoot. if i remember rightly the juice comes out red when squashed but i'm not sure if this is from the skin or the actual juice. I think that, as i never thinned out the bunches before, i have always got thick skinned grapes which are small, i think this year is likely to be the first bunches i have that give a true indication of the size.

I am in the south of Essex, near to the Thames Estuary, this basically means i have some very hot weather in the summer, normally warmer than surrounding counties, i'm in something of a micro climate, the estuary means i rarely get snow and when i do it doesn't last long, the vine is on the top of a fence with the main branches growing north to south, the vine gets sun for the vast majority of the day. to give an idea, the hot weather we had last weekend resulted in my garden getting to 32 degrees in the shade, in direct sunlight on a wall below my vine it went up to 48! my coldest night last winter was -4 on one night but the rest of the winter it only dipped below zero on four or five days.

My shoots tend to try and grow up rather than hanging, would it be a good idea to weight them so they grow down? or should i just go with the flow and let them run where they want? i am told that different varieties should be grown in a different way, some with low branches growing up and others with high branches growing down?

Thanks again for all your help and advice.

Wow, thank you all, so to answer a few of the questions, the Grapes come out red... eventually. This is the first year i have pruned out the growth with no bunches and reduced the bunches to one per shoot. if i remember rightly the juice comes out red when squashed but i'm not sure if this is from the skin or the actual juice. I think that, as i never thinned out the bunches before, i have always got thick skinned grapes which are small, i think this year is likely to be the first bunches i have that give a true indication of the size.

I am in the south of Essex, near to the Thames Estuary, this basically means i have some very hot weather in the summer, normally warmer than surrounding counties, i'm in something of a micro climate, the estuary means i rarely get snow and when i do it doesn't last long, the vine is on the top of a fence with the main branches growing north to south, the vine gets sun for the vast majority of the day. to give an idea, the hot weather we had last weekend resulted in my garden getting to 32 degrees in the shade, in direct sunlight on a wall below my vine it went up to 48! my coldest night last winter was -4 on one night but the rest of the winter it only dipped below zero on four or five days.

My shoots tend to try and grow up rather than hanging, would it be a good idea to weight them so they grow down? or should i just go with the flow and let them run where they want? i am told that different varieties should be grown in a different way, some with low branches growing up and others with high branches growing down?

Thanks again for all your help and advice.

Wow, thank you all, so to answer a few of the questions, the Grapes come out red... eventually. This is the first year i have pruned out the growth with no bunches and reduced the bunches to one per shoot. if i remember rightly the juice comes out red when squashed but i'm not sure if this is from the skin or the actual juice. I think that, as i never thinned out the bunches before, i have always got thick skinned grapes which are small, i think this year is likely to be the first bunches i have that give a true indication of the size.

I am in the south of Essex, near to the Thames Estuary, this basically means i have some very hot weather in the summer, normally warmer than surrounding counties, i'm in something of a micro climate, the estuary means i rarely get snow and when i do it doesn't last long, the vine is on the top of a fence with the main branches growing north to south, the vine gets sun for the vast majority of the day. to give an idea, the hot weather we had last weekend resulted in my garden getting to 32 degrees in the shade, in direct sunlight on a wall below my vine it went up to 48! my coldest night last winter was -4 on one night but the rest of the winter it only dipped below zero on four or five days.

My shoots tend to try and grow up rather than hanging, would it be a good idea to weight them so they grow down? or should i just go with the flow and let them run where they want? i am told that different varieties should be grown in a different way, some with low branches growing up and others with high branches growing down?

Thanks again for all your help and advice.