Recent Cold Spell Threatens New Buds

All around California tiny oval buds are appearing, signifying life of a vine. This week, Ray Teldeschi confirmed budbreak on his Dry Creek zinfandel. For many grape growers, budbreak marks the beginning of the season, similar to baseball's opening day. From this day forward, growers carefully monitor anything that can impact their vines. Here's an overview of the annual grapevine cycle, with this year's activity:

Even the slightest frost can ruin a crop and negatively impact the harvest quality. As SF Gate reported in this week's article, The life of a vine, "...in late March and early April, frost becomes an issue that growers lose sleep over. When temperatures drop into the mid-30s, invariably in the middle of the night, frost alarms alert the vineyard managers via cell phone and pagers, sending them driving bleary-eyed in the darkness and to the vineyards."

Over the past couple of days, California has been hit with a cold spell. Casey Hartslip from Mendocino's Eaglepoint Ranch reported his vineyard saw 2-4 inches of snow. I've been keeping close on Dave Coffaro's weather station which happens to be just down the road from Ray. So far the temperatures haven't fallen below freezing. I'm praying for no frost.