Flowering 2026: early, but not quite as much as we'd feared
On April 1st, 2026, we were 34 days ahead of 2025's heat accumulation. But by May 15th we were "just" 20 days ahead. The last six weeks has seen ideal conditions for flowering.
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Pretty Pictures
A collection of 349 posts
Budbreak 2026 arrives two weeks early... and this week's potential record heat means it will spread fast
Every day of the last three weeks has seen highs at least in the upper 60°s F, without a low dropping below the upper 30°s. We've topped 70°F every day for the last week, and 80°F two of the last three days. So it's no surprise that the vines have woken up.
A wet, chilly week gets the 2025-26 winter back on track
After a month of warm, sunny weather that stretched from early January to early February, we were starting to wonder if winter was over and we'd have to start worrying about budbreak. Thanks to 6+" of rain in the last week, we're back on track.
Assessing the Lovely Wet Beginning to the 2025-26 Winter
Five days into January, we've accumulated nearly 16 inches of precipitation, which is 176% of what we'd expect for the winter to date. Just as important to how much rain we've received is how it has fallen: gradually and with breaks in-between.
Paso Robles is Ridiculously Beautiful, Unusual Fall Color Palette Edition
The end of this year has provided a different color palette than we're used to in November. Typically, our first frost comes around the same time as our first rain. That means that the grapevines lose their leaves before we get much in the way of green growth. Not this year.
2025 Harvest Recap: the Tortoise Crosses the Finish Line
Last Tuesday, with small clean-up picks of Grenache, Cinsaut, and Counoise and one recalcitrant lot of Bourboulenc (more on that later) we completed the 2025 harvest. This was the 11th week of harvest, which was our longest in more than two decades and our second-longest ever.
Harvest 2025 draws to a close, interrupted but not derailed by rain
Early Tuesday morning, we brought in Mourvedre from our Scruffy Hill block. Ian got up early to document it, and got some dramatic photos that he shared in our social media feeds, including the below cover photo:
With that pick, we have brought in our last substantial block and are
Harvest 2025 at its Midpoint: Hurry Up and Wait
At a time when we're usually at the peak of harvest, we instead spent much of the week in a holding pattern. Early Wednesday morning, a rare thunderstorm rolled through, caused by a cutoff low left behind after the passage of tropical storm Mario last week.
Veraison 2025: Slow and Steady Wins the Race
Veraison, if you're unfamiliar with the term, is a physiological stage of grape development where the berries stop accumulating mass and start accumulating sugar. More visibly, red grapes start their color change from green, while white grapes take on more of a yellow tint. Both red and white
2025 Summer Solstice Vineyard Tour: It's Been Average, Which Is Just Perfect
One month ago, I wrote about how we'd exited frost season and entered flowering in ideal conditions. Not too hot, not too cold, not too windy. Just... benign. I'm pleased to report that the last month warmed up, as you'd expect in late May