[lightyears]

im quite interested in starting a few vines off this year, thing is i really dont have a clue when it comes to growing them. we are going to build a pergola type thing to train it over but that the most of my knowledge.... can anyone point me in the right direction or offer some helpful hints

[Trillium]

With so many varieties available, you need to decide if it's eating grapes you really want, or wine grapes. You can eat the latter but they're not quite as nice as the former.

Grapes do not like rich soil. They much prefer dry, poor soil that is well drained so your location should reflect this; otherwise the plants will simply not grow well and produce fruit. When you've got this sorted, and variety choice, it's easy to find pruning techniques which you'd need to start doing in the 2nd year.