Bud Break Means Spring Has Come to the Vineyard

Bud break heralds the awakening of the vineyard and the beginning of a new vintage.

Spring is truly a time of miraculous and magical renewal and growth. No matter where you live, Spring is on display somewhere - the park, the hillsides, public gardens and your own backyard. Here in wine country, nowhere is Spring more exciting than in our vineyards with the onset of “bud-break”, the beginning of the annual growth cycle of our grapevines.

After a long, quiet winter of dormancy, warmer weather and soil signals the vines to begin the process of “bleeding”, pushing water and sugars up from the roots through the cuts made during pruning in February. Tiny buds on the vine, having appeared in the previous summer, swell and eventually shoots begin to emerge from them. Things happen pretty fast after that. The energy from carbohydrate reserves stored in the roots and wood of the vine, can propel the shoots to grow at a rate of 1 inch per day! 

While this is an exciting time in the vineyard, we can never lose sight of the vulnerability of the buds to mid-Spring frost damage, which could severely effect the vines ability to produce the flower clusters that, after pollination, will become the “fruit of the vine”. Just one of the many times during the year when we, as farmers, are humbled by the possible whims of mother nature. 

But enough “tech talk”.  Get outside and enjoy Spring wherever you are, and if you are here in Sonoma Wine Country, we invite you to come on out to the winery for a visit and see for yourself the glorious greening of the vineyard.