Bud break has arrived!
What is bud break you ask? It’s the beginning of the grapes annual growth cycle, which means that the kick off to #Harvest2015 has officially begun!! Tiny buds on the grapevine start to swell and eventually shoots begin to grow from the buds. Buds are the small part of the vine that rest between the vine’s stem and the petiole (leaf stem). We have seen signs of bud break in both our Lytton Springs and East Bench vineyards.
This has us running about three weeks ahead of normal in our Sonoma County vineyards. What does that mean for our vineyard team? Well, it does increase the concern about frost. After bud break, the young shoots are very vulnerable to frost damage should temperature drop below freezing. However, at this time there are no implications to bloom, fruit set, or the eventual harvest. This could point to another early harvest if we again see a warm spring, but that is still too early to tell for sure. For now, it simply means that another growing season has begun…and to that we raise our glass.
Categories: #harvest2015
Leave a Reply