Hardscrabble Journal

Welcome Spring

Our big season shift is about to begin. A cold, snowy February drove us to the cellar. A dry, mild March brings us back out to the vineyard.

Our work schedule is dictated by the weather. The first thing I do in the morning is check the “ten day”. Then I plan the day and week. In February if it wasn’t snowing or blowing there was such a thick crust of ice on the snow that it was difficult to walk without taking a spill. Broken arms are not allowed during pruning season.

So we bottled, labeled and blended. All the wine is where it needs to be. Bottling days were a bit stressful as we prefer to bottle on lousy weather days because we are not “wasting” a good pruning day. However this winter we had to contend with the possibility of power outages and road conditions (staff needs to navigate windy roads and Linden’s challenging drive way). With a few delays bottling was successful. Now almost all of the 2019 vintage is resting in glass.

We also finalized our blending trial decisions and physically blended the 2020 reds. It was a “Claret vintage” with the great majority of the barrels going to Claret rather than single vineyard designation. At 45% Hardscrabble has the highest portion of Cabernet Franc ever. Avenius is a classic with ripe Merlot giving the edge to Cabernet Sauvignon. Petit Verdot is characteristically exuberant.

It is satisfying to walk the cellar as see everything in its proper place. I will not have another cellar work day until July when we prepare the wines for August bottling. Jonathan will dedicate one day a month to top off barrels (replace wine lost by evaporation). The vines are calling.

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Linden Vineyards / Learn More / Latest at Linden | Journal: March 5, 2021