Annual Cycle of Growth

This is the time of the year that I start filling out the chart for the annual cycle of growth. Although on the chart there is a specific day for the milestones that we track including budbreak, bloom, veraison and harvest, the date can have a range. We began tracking our annual cycle of growth in the vineyard beginning 2015 when we had our first small harvest of Chenin Blanc.
This is what the annual cycle of growth chart looks like:

I took pictures of all of the varieties on May 4th and what stage of development they were in at that time. Due to the cold weather than we are having, the Cabernet Sauvignon is not yet in bud break. This is what is defined as budbreak:¹

The Chenin Blanc appears to be the furthest along followed by the Barbera, Chardonnay, Cabernet Franc and Auxerrois.
I copied the Annual Cycle of Growth chart from Ed Hellman's excellent online document on Grapevine Structure and Function. It is 19 pages long and crammed with good information about grapevines.
References:
1. Ed Hellman, Grapevine Structure and Function.

Vintage 2026: May Buds Status

Our weather this spring has been one of highs and lows. After the cold snap on April 20 and 21, we have been having weather that is on the cooler side. I've taken pictures of all of our grape varieties, once on April 21 and then again yesterday, May 4. The change in the bud status is negligible, reflecting the cool temperatures that we have been having.

Variety	April 21	May 4
Auxerrois
Chenin Blanc
Chardonnay
Cabernet Sauvignon
Cabernet Franc
Barbera

I'll update the progress of the buds in future blogs.

Chenin Blanc Pairing

It's no secret that we love Chenin Blanc. It's difficult to pinpoint when we began this love affair with Chenin Blanc but Domaine Huet definitely plays a large part as well as Ken Forrester's Petit Chenin. I've blogged about it before: Ken Forrester's 2009 Petit Chenin and 2010 Domaine Huet Le Mont.
Chenin Blanc pairs so perfectly with fresh oysters and seafood and seafood is what naturally comes to mind when pairing white wines.
Recently, however, we had leftover pork ribs with a dry rub and two bottles of Chenin Blanc. One was our 2019 Chenin Blanc and the other was a 2010 Domaine Huet Le Mont. Since we enjoy food and wine pairings, we thought why not try it with the two Chenins. To our surprise, the wines went very well with the dry rub pork ribs. Our assessment to this pairing was that our Chenin has a good bit of acidity that cut through the pork ribs and made it an unlikely but delicious pairing!

Coincidentally, one of our customers who came back to bring her sister and purchase more wines, recounted that she and her husband paired our 2019 Chenin Blanc with dry rub pork ribs! She mentioned that although her husband is not a wine drinker, he enjoyed the Chenin with the ribs that he prepared!

Vintage 2026: Mid-April Frost and Freeze Conditions

Last week, we were having absolutely wonderful warm weather and then our friend, a vineyard manager at another winery alerted us to a possible frost and freeze occuring in our area on Monday morning, April 20 and Tuesday morning, April 21. We did have some of our varieties in the wooly bud stage so we were concerned. When we got there on Monday, everything seemed okay and then on Tuesday, I took photos of our buds.

Variety
Auxerrois
Chenin Blanc
Chardonnay
Cabernet Sauvignon
Cabernet Franc
Barbera

I think they are fine. It's not at all like the freeze we had on May 18, 2023. However, I did see in my wine news feed that areas to the south of us experienced what we had in May 2023. It's a devastating feeling.