Articles by Jim Law

I’ve put together some notes on the 2023 growing season and harvest. This is not a vintage overview, but rather comments on some of the highlights of an unusual year. In the future, climate change will exacerbate fluctuations in temperature and rainfall. These notes center around my observations in that regard.

Vintage 2021 may have been our first climate change test. Every weather event we witnessed was what meteorologists predicted a decade ago. Extremes and fluctuations demanded patience, meteorological fluency, and vineyard intimacy.

The history of winemaking dates back many millennia. Today, most wine produced is a continuation of the work and discovery of previous generations. However, in Virginia we are in a unique position to unveil a virgin terroir. This has been an attraction to many of us in the industry. It’s what brought me here in 1981. And it is what keeps me going.

When the first murmurs of global warming began to surface decades ago, my reaction was that this could be a good thing for Linden as our Cabernet Sauvignon struggled to ripen and a bit more heat would help. However, I was not aware of the associated weather extremes of a warming atmosphere.

When the first murmurs of global warming began to surface decades ago, my reaction was that this could be a good thing for Linden as our Cabernet Sauvignon struggled to ripen and a bit more heat would help. However, I was not aware of the associated weather extremes of a warming atmosphere.

Professor Gérard Seguin of Bordeaux passed away this April. His writings guided some of my most important decisions in my quest for terroir expression at Hardscrabble.

Many Virginia wineries are now consistently making polished, complex and structured reds wines. “Bordeaux” blends of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and/or Petit Verdot have become standard bearers. The learning curve has been long and is still steep.

There is a lot of information available about vine pruning. Most of it focuses on technique and philosophy. I would like to address more practical aspects...

In the 1980s, viticulture discovery travels took me to Napa and Sonoma. Growers there found it amusing that someone would even consider growing grapes on the East Coast.

For the last five or ten years I’ve been nurturing a succession of native cover crops growing under my vines. The results have been encouraging.

One challenge of Virginia viticulture is winter damage and the resulting vine loss. The winter of 2014 was especially tough on young vines.

Hardscrabble Vineyard is now in the fifteenth year of a ten-year plan of replanting vineyards.

2015 vintage presented us with the most perfect Merlot grapes I have ever experienced. Cool dry days allowed us to pick at our leisure.

Shoot thinning is the most satisfying of all vineyard operations. There is immediate gratification in transforming a disheveled mass of random green shoots into an orderly, balanced canopy structure.

At Linden Vineyards the sugar content (brix) of ripening grapes plays a minor role in picking decisions.

In 1981, after a few years experience working in vineyards and wineries, I had two job offers. One was in Oregon and the other in Virginia. I chose Virginia.

This article takes a business perspective of the Virginia wine industry: a lack of a strong, consistent supply of Virginia grapes. I’ve heard grumblings from both sides of the equation. Growers aren’t getting paid enough to support their business. Wineries can’t find enough grapes.

Once harvest winds down I try to take some time to put things in perspective

There is a slow shift of wine style preference on the high-end spectrum of Wineworld. Parker’s influence is waning, sommeliers are the new tastemakers, and big fruit bomb wines are becoming passé. Given this scenario, the climate of the mid-Atlantic has a distinct advantage over hot, sunny, dry California.