Textbook Auxerrois

Our Auxerrois which has been planted on the far west side of the field is showing some good growth. I asked Fritz Westover if the leaves coming out of the axial position of the shoot was a lateral and he confirmed it, also advising us to let it grow. Later, when I was searching the Internet, I found a really good article called Grapevine Structure and Function written by Edward W. Hellman of the Horticultural Department of Texas A&M, Texas AgriLife Extension. In the article there was a diagram of a grape shoot with the various structures labeled.¹

Had I seen the article, I would have known that the leaf coming out of the axillary position was a lateral shoot, but I had not realized that the lateral shoot begins as a leaf!

A grape shoot exhibits very regular growth. In a typical shoot, you may see flower clusters growing opposite a leaf typically at the third to sixth node from the base of the shoot. Further up the shoot, there are tendrils which provide support for the growing shoots. In this article, Hellman writes that flowers and tendrils have a common developmental origin so occasionally, a few flowers can develop on the end of a tendril. Since our grape vine is really seeing only the second summer, we don't expect to see many flower clusters, but we did see this one which has a flower cluster and a tendril with a flower cluster.
Oh, the things you see when scouting!
Reference:
1. Edward W. Hellman, Grapevine Structure and Function.