Most likely you are just being impatient, give them some more time. They have probably been in cold storage prior to shipping to you and have not yet had enough heat to wake up. My mature vines are just now breaking buds, a little over a week ago they were totally lifeless.

If you must know if they are alive or not you can scrape the bark (or cut the tip of the stick off) and look for green tissue. If you see green, they are alive and will grow. If you decide to check for green, they will likely bleed sap when they wake up, but that is normal and won't hurt the vine.

You are in for a lot of fun, what kind of grapes are they? I find grape growing pretty addicting - my vines keep multiplying...

Thanks for the tips. I was hoping that I was just impatient. The branches are so small that I'm afraid that if I scrape the bark, I'll snap the darn thing in half.

Hopefully, they do take off. The kids love grapes, & I have a great recipe for Greek grape leaves as well.

They are a sweet, red seedless grape. Not exactly sure the specific type, I got the plants at a huge flea market in NE Alabama.