After Wednesday’s deluge we have had perfect ripening weather. The big concern centered around grape integrity. With a large hit of water the grapes will swell. Even worse they can crack. If this happens they lose their protective coating and start to fall apart. They cannot recover, even under ideal weather conditions.
Read MoreYesterday was a bummer. There is no way to sugarcoat a big rain during harvest.
Read MoreWe start this week picking Hardscrabble Chardonnay. Two blocks are ripe and we need to get them in the barn (walk-in cooler) before Wednesday’s forecasted rain. Two additional blocks will remain as they need a bit more time before they come into balance.
Read MoreWe can rarely schedule Hardscrabble’s Riesling picking date. Once the grapes enter the window of ripeness they become highly susceptible to rot. Rot is triggered by rain. It rained yesterday. We pick today.
Read MoreThis past week’s weather has made for a remarkable turnaround in the flavors and concentration in the grapes. It’s the break we needed. The only small downside has been the recent hot afternoons. We have limited picking to the cooler morning hours. Coolness retains fresh aromatics and limits bitterness in the juice.
Read MoreThe waiting is over. The grapes took full advantage of a brilliant weekend. The soils are drying out. Leaves are soaking up the sun and photosynthesis is accelerating ripening. While we want the vines to take in the goodness of each sunny day, the picking line-up is growing and beginning to look intimidating. Time to start.
Read MoreToday is Linden’s first day of crush for vintage 2021. On the slate are Hardscrabble’s Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc. The season has presented a circuitous, twisted path to get to this point. A mid-summer drought followed by late summer cycles of brilliant sun and downpours.
Read MoreLinden will start harvest later this week. Making this decision has been particularly difficult this year due to extreme fluctuations between drought and rain. The vines are confused. Lately the weather has settled down nicely. And we hope that continues.
Read MoreHarvest is still weeks away, but recent rains have given us a reality check. We were enjoying a much drier than normal summer, but there were worries that the vines were becoming too water stressed. Some rain was desirable. Be careful what you wish for.
Read MoreLast week we bottled. It was wonderfully boring. A boring day is as good as it gets. There are lots of moving parts on our bottling line, and if one of those parts does not move the way it is supposed to move, our boring day becomes a stressful day.
Read MoreThis week we saw the first berries turn color. This signals the beginning of ripening.
Read MoreIt has been many years since the vineyard has been this dry. The grass is browning, but the vines look good. Vines have deep roots and are still finding enough water in the subsoil.
Read MoreIt is very dry at Linden. Most of the vines are doing well given that their roots are deep and finding enough water in the subsoil. However some of the younger vines are starting to show signs of water stress. We’ve been weeding and mowing more frequently in order to reduce competition for moisture.
Read MoreFor the past few weeks most of our days have been spent hand removing unwanted leaves and shoots in the cluster zone. Grapevines are trained so that all the clusters are uniformly in a line at the same level. At Linden this would be between 30” to 40” which correlates to tabletop to countertop height.
Read MoreGrape flowering is over and it seems that we are looking at a potentially large crop. “Set” is the term we use for the percentage of grape flowers that are successfully pollinated and become developing berries.
Read MoreWe are now at the peak of canopy work in the vineyard. The task is repetitive in nature. One could make a comparison to a factory assembly line, but simply being outside negates that argument.
Read MoreOne very significant aspect of Hardscrabble Vineyard that has changed over the years is the vineyard floor. In the 1980s and 1990s we would keep the ground under the vines weed free. This allowed for good air flow. Additionally the lack of competition for water and nutrients resulted in very large, vigorous vines.
Read MoreIt’s not been this dry this early since 2010. The soil is drying out quickly, especially with this heat and lower humidity. Thus far the impact has been positive. No disease pressure and slower growth of weeds and grass means that we can spend more of our time tending the vines.
Read MoreLinden is in a different 17-year brood cycle. We last had them in 2013. 2030 is just around the corner.
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