Spring

It's April in Sonoma and we have budbreak.

Harvest

The growing season and harvest have been quite unusual in 2008, with a dry start, late frosts and long heat spells, then a harvest spread over 6 weeks.

The season started by being even drier than last year, with no major rain events after February, when we normally would have rain through April, and sometimes into May.  The irrigation pond did fill up this year as we had constructed some new erosion control work last fall that allowed more vineyard drainage to flow into the pond by increasing the rainfall catchment area.

In mid April, during bud break, we had a severe cold snap that caused many local vineyards to have significant frost damage, but luckily due to our local micro climate we had only minor damage to the vines. The cold spell was followed by unseasonal early high temperatures in late July/early August, which caused the vines to catch up by verasion.

Again in late August we had another prolonged hot spell with 6 days of 100 plus degree weather which hastened an early September harvest on the new Merlot vines, their first.  We then had several weeks of cooler weather which allowed the sugars in the Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot to fall back a bit while the flavors in the fruit reached a more even balance. We then harvested the balance of the fruit in late September and early October, the second earliest ever in the vineyard.