We are full force into our final pruning, expecting and hoping to be complete by the end of March before what we anticipate will be a very early bud-break this year due to the extremely mild winter. The average date of budbreak in our region is April 15. Last week our temps peaked at 70 degrees, with several days in the mid-60's. Weather forecasters are predicting it to reach 70 again later this week. At this rate, we might break our previous record of an April 1 bud-break in 2010. I am going out on a limb to predict our Chardonnay's bud-break date for 2012 to be Mar 28... just a wild guess, but fun to throw out there. Anyone else want to throw out a guess?
And so you can imagine our surprise when forecasters yesterday afternoon sent out an alert for a winter weather advisory overnight. The images below are what we enjoyed this morning as we greeted an unexpected guest into our vineyard... "Ol' Man Winter." By the way, they are predicting temps to go down into the low twenties overnight. Fortunately the buds are still nice and tight. California growers, I know you must be green with envy you don't get to experience such vineyard excitement.
Our little winery in the woods
What a difference a day makes!
