Ready to get ready

March is always the time of year when we all get ready for the new season, like it or not. This year looks like an early start.

Already we’ve seen an earlier than normal bud-break (when the vines begin to come out of dormancy and green tissue emerges) in the Chardonnay and Pinot Noir by about two weeks. The warmer than usual temperatures, with little rain, is probably the culprit.

So what does this mean for Vintage 2015?

As any farmer would say, it depends on the weather. Hopefully we don’t have much frost incidents as the later varieties begin to show bud-break. So far most of the early varieties that have emerged have frost protection, but only time will tell for the other later varieties.

Normally Chardonnay and Pinot Noir start to come out of dormancy around March 10 to 20, followed by Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot, syrah, zinfandel and then Cabernet Sauvignon around the beginning of April.

This year if the trend follows this could put them in risk of the normal cold weather we see around the end of March.

Mother Nature normally compensates for itself so only time will tell. It’s hard to predict the weather and possibly a cool spring might slow down the growth as in some of the past years.

For anyone who lives in California know that we need more rain, this would help hold off bud-break for the later varieties and help in our current dry pattern.

So for all of our wine lovers let’s wish for some rain and mild temperatures in the next couple of weeks. One great thing is that frost doesn’t normally occur on the hills and only in the valleys, where we have a lot of vineyards with frost protection.