This is a critical time for sunshine, moderate to warm temperatures, not too much heat, and not too much fog. So far, everything is on track.

When we go through and hedge, we remove about a foot from the shoots which redirects the energy from the growth of the wine to caring for the grapes. It also tells the vine that we are reaching another level of maturity. I never read this in a book.

It has been a cool summer with sporadic heat and  morning fog. We don’t usually see fog past June but this year has been different. As a result, the crop is late by about 10 days. 

This has been a cold, wet spring but we avoided frost on the new growth. Now we are hoping for some heat and no more rain. The grapes are trying to bloom and they are dragging behind, which could make for problems later.