This growing season is starting early, and uniform across the vineyard. It is one of the earliest starts in the past few years, second only to 2010 when budbreak occurred on March 28. We had a warmer than normal dormancy, with all months but January averaging a degree or two above normal. Rainfall-wise, October through December was significantly wetter than normal, while January through March was significantly dryer than normal; overall rainfall during dormancy was about three inches less than normal.
It was a busy "off-season" this year. Besides the normal pruning and tying, we put in 7 acres of trellis, for the new vines we planted last season; and began construction of our own, tiny winery building.
We're looking forward, to what we hope will be the fourth consecutive excellent vintage to be produced during our on-going renovation of this special vineyard.
