Linden Update | May 2018

Finally, the First Flush of Green

This spring has given the vines a very good start to vintage 2018. Very late in starting, there has been no time wasted in trying to catch up. Warm May temperatures accelerated the first flush of young shoots. The vines look very healthy and the appearance of tiny flower clusters tell us that we should expect a good potential crop. If May continues this warm trend, flowering could be right on time (we are still about a week behind “normal”).

Terroir Project

With great anticipation Linden’s newly planted vines have budded out. It is now officially a vineyard. Although at this point it looks more like a field of chickweed and bamboo sticks. We encourage the chickweed as it will soon go to seed and die leaving lots of organic matter for the soil and a good layer of natural mulch to retain moisture and hinder other weed growth.

The bamboo is in position to train the vine up to the trellis wire. In a week or two we will remove all but one of each vine’s tender shoots. Assuming we have adequate rainfall, this shoot will grow rapidly. By mid summer we will have made several passes through the vineyard securing the shoot to the bamboo with tape or twine. Once the shoot reaches the trellis wire it will use its tendrils to grab the wires and do its own training.