Following Up On Budbreak & Waiting For Bloom

It’s been about a month since budbreak and the vines are coming along nicely. We started the growing season a couple of weeks behind due to cold temperatures and a really wet March.  But the vines look great and I wanted to share a few photos from the vineyard so you can chart the progress that we’re seeing here.

The weather has been really fantastic lately with some days in the 70s and low 80s: Great weather for grape vines. The vineyard teams have disked the vine rows to open up the soil and allow it to warm up. And we’ve seen the vines growing several millimeters per day.  If you pay attention, you can almost see the young shoots reaching for the sun.

These warm days have allowed us to catch up a bit and we are anxiously awaiting bloom, which for this area of Sonoma County happens on average on May 12th.  We’ll see were we fall this year.

Chardonnay vines

Zinfandel vines in Sonoma County

Cabernet vines growing in Sonoma County

Check back soon and I’ll be sure to update you on bloom and the rest of the progress in the vineyard as we begin racing toward Harvest.