This has been the wettest growing season I have ever experienced.
For those of you who have an interest in following the progression of the 2018 vintage, I have been faithfully posting weekly updates in Hardscrabble Journal on Linden’s new web site.
Read MoreThe vines are exhibiting a high degree of resilience through all this gloomy rain. We growers take note and try to follow suit.
Read MoreThis 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.
Read MoreI’ve been delaying updating you about Linden’s spring vineyard activities. Best to wait for spring weather to arrive. I haven’t yet given up on spring 2018, they say it will arrive later this week, so with great optimism here we go!
Read MoreThe winter of 2018 started with worrisome volatile temperature swings reminiscent of recent Dow Jones activity. However the past few weeks have settled down to a typical, but dreary mid-winter normal.
Read MoreOur farmer’s worries have started early this vintage as we watch the mercury drop. Temperatures below zero can damage vines. But it is complicated. Long story short, we should be OK with this current bout of arctic air.
Read MoreLast December we introduced a different kind of tasting format. We call it Free Form. Each weekend the tastings will vary and will include pre-releases and older vintages.
Read More2017 will be our benchmark vintage for decades to come. This is one of the rare years where both whites and reds were harvested with high expectations.
Read MoreIt has been a well-paced harvest so far at Linden Vineyards. Most of the white varieties are “in the barn”, perking along. Fruity, yeasty aromas waft up to the tasting room.
Read MoreAfter a very dry June and July our vines were in need of a good rain. An inch or two would have been great, but in just a few hours on August 11 we received 3.5 inches. This ended the drought and refreshed our stressed young vines.
Read MoreMost of you live in the area and have been experiencing our classic Mid-Atlantic summer. You may wonder how the vines are doing with the heat, humidity and lack of rain. The short answer is “fine”. The longer version is “it depends”.
Read MoreI’m reminded of an old winegrower’s adage: “June makes the quantity, September makes the quality.”
Read MoreMother Nature has been a bit of a wild woman. The vines shrugged off February temperatures in the 80°’s, teens in March and patchy frost in May. Our resilient vines have survived.
Read More2017 will be my 38th vintage. In the 1980s the idea of climate change seemed too futuristic to have any real consequences in my lifetime. Now it is here and having a more dramatic impact than I thought.
Read More2014’s spring tease is more pronounced than usual. Temperature swings from the 80º’s down to the 20º’s aggravate humans more than our vines. The season had a very late start.
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