I was enjoying my morning walk with Lady through the vineyards today and took a moment to appreciate the immense beauty of the flowering vines.  The growing season is upon us, and things are moving fast here at our estate vineyards in Dry Creek Valley.  It’s always exciting to see the vines flourishing again, bringing lush and vibrant greens to the valley landscape.  This is considered the first step in the development of the berries however, it is the 2^nd viticultural marker of the year.  In late March, we saw the first marker, budbreak (3 weeks later than average this year), where the vines start to wake up from their winter slumber.  By late July we will likely see the first signs of veraison (onset of the ripening of the grapes), followed by harvest in late August or early September. 

While we are only a quarter of the way through the growing season, we are able to start making comparisons to other years allowing us to make a better assessment of what we are looking at for the 2023 vintage.  And let me tell you, so far, we are setting up for a remarkable year!  While we had late bud break this year, flowering was only a week later than average, and we are seeing nice cluster volumes.  Due to the nice wet winter, the ground was replenished with moisture, which helped the vines to be vigorous, and grow strong early on.  The canopies throughout the estate vineyards here in Healdsburg are healthy, and everything is growing happily – we couldn’t be more excited for what’s to come!

I hope you can join us soon for a wine tasting at the property and see the beauty for yourselves.

Cheers,

Debra