Hardscrabble Journal

Tolerable

A word with a relative meaning given events over the past few months. The temperature was 29°F at dawn, which is borderline. I just got back from walking the vineyard for the fourth time today, scouting for the crispy shoots of freeze damage. My first walk was at sun up, but I knew that it would be inconclusive as it takes at least a few hours of warm sun for freeze damage to express itself.

This afternoon it expressed itself. The damage is variable: one or two shoots can be lost, but the others are fine. Rarely is there an entire vine that has lost all its shoots to this freeze damage. The more advanced the growth, the greater the damage. Chardonnay and Merlot have the highest percentage of shoots lost, but still I would only put that number at around 10% to 20%. Cabernet shows very little damage.

One more round tomorrow morning with predictions of 32°F. I might not even lose sleep over it.

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Linden Vineyards / Learn More / Latest at Linden | Journal: May 9, 2020