Transition Time

Late July brings a shift to the vineyard and to the cellar.

The vines have entered lag phase, which refers to a temporary pause in berry enlargement. Up to this point the grapes have been growing in size due to cell division. This has now finished and soon the cells will begin to mature. Véraison, as ripening is called, will begin in a week or two. This is when the vines need to be putting all their energy into the clusters. Ideally, additional shoot growth will slow and cease, as this growth competes with the ripening grapes.

This is why we like the soil to dry out in mid summer. It signals to the vines that they need to stop growing leaves and start focusing on the grapes. Last week’s heat wave helped dry out the soil, but we still would like to see it even drier. Fortunately, this time of the year most rain comes in the form of quick moving thunderstorms. This rain doesn’t have enough time to soak into the soil. The water simply flows down our hillsides. Still, the grass is fairly green. Yellow to brown would be a more desirable color for August.

It is bottling time in the cellar. Barrels need to be emptied to be available for the September start of vintage 2019. We’ve been 100% in the vineyard since March, so it will take a while to reacquaint ourselves with winery work.

All Linden’s wines currently in barrel will be bottled by late August. This presents a good learning opportunity for those interested in the development of wines once in bottle. Two seminar dates are offered below. Recently bottled wines will be tasted alongside their older counterparts.

Patience Rewards: Bottle Evolution
August 18 & 25

Wines constantly evolve during aging in the cellar and in the bottle. Bottled wines gain complexity and integration with time. So what does that mean? There is only one way to find out.

Jim Law will take advantage of recently bottled wines on hand—2017 reds and 2018 whites—and contrast them with older vintages that have benefited from bottle aging.

Linden Evolution Seminars on August 18 & 25 are sold out.

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Linden Vineyards / Learn More / Latest at Linden | Update: July 2019