Journal | April 21, 2025
Vines off and running
Official Chardonnay bud break occurred on Saturday April 19. This is recorded when 50% of the buds open up to reveal the first green leaf. After all our wild temperature fluctuations over the last few weeks, this budding date is average. With the warm weather predicted for the coming week, all the other grape varieties should follow suit quickly.
While we are not yet out of the woods as far as frost susceptibility, this fast push is welcome. Uniformity is one of the keys to the quality of any vintage. Synchronistic bud break is a good start to that goal. The vines did experience some minor damage from the frost of April 9, but it is quite manageable.
The major concern for this spring is water. The soils are very dry for this time of year. This is coming off of two drought years. If we continue this dry into the summer months it would make it three years in a row. If this is the case we’ll have to reduce the crop by removing shoots and clusters so that the vines don’t get too stressed. A couple of soaking rains over the next few weeks would help replenish the soils.
Linden Vineyards / Learn More / Latest at Linden | Hardscrabble Journal: April 21, 2025