Journal | August 27, 2026
Intentional weeds growing in the Cabernet Sauvignon to help with water transpiration
The Courage to do Nothing
It's looking like harvest will start next week with Sauvignon Blanc. The vines are healthy. Too healthy in some cases. The rains and heat of August have stimulated excessive and exuberant vine growth. This is not desirable. The vines should be focusing on ripening grapes, not producing new leaves. In an attempt to slow them down we have taken a page from our winemaking philosophy of doing nothing. I'll explain.
The level of control in winemaking has been debated ever since the advent of modern science and technology. When Linden started in the 1980s we embraced many new, cutting edge winemaking methods, but over the decades we have weaned ourselves from most interventions. In the cellar we slowly landed on the best path to express terroir in our wines by doing as little tinkering as possible. It means not adding stuff from a bag or a bottle (acids, tannins, enzymes, fining agents). It means trusting the wines even when they go in a direction that may seem undesirable. Often the wines require years of aging before they gather themselves up and show their best. The courage to do nothing requires time and patience.
But in the vineyard we remained more controlling: positioning shoots, removing leaves, hedging excessive growth. Mowing, spraying, weeding made for a coiffed, manicured vineyard. But climate change has now forced us to rethink everything we do in the vineyard. This year has been a vineyard management challenge. Frost left some vines with no grapes and a weakened structure. Then there was record heat that sunburned exposed clusters. August rains stimulated exuberant late season shoot growth.
In arid regions vineyards are irrigated. In wetter regions we occasionally try to evacuate water out of the soil by allowing weeds, grass, cover crops and vines to grow without intervention. It's a jungle out there and it is intentional. The goal is to build a big biomass that can literally suck (transpire) the water out of the soil. Roots to leaves to air.
The vineyard does not look pretty. It's a bit embarrassing, but it's the best way to slow the vines down and get them back into balance. Now that the soils are beginning to dry out we are returning back to some hedging, but with caution as next week could bring record heat and the clusters can't be too exposed. We need autumn to make an appearance.
Looking a bit wild out here
Linden Vineyards / Learn More / Latest at Linden | Hardscrabble Journal: August 27, 2026