The solstice has just passed. So even though the days are now getting shorter, we are still really in the peak sunlight hours of the growing season—a great time to check in on where the vines are in their annual growth cycle.​

This vintage began with a relatively mild winter, moving into a mild and wet early spring. This combination spurred the vines to come out of dormancy early. Buds started pushing out in early March, and by the end of March and into early April, most of the Valley’s vines had started to push. Many of our growers were estimating that this season was going to progress a full month ahead of average! The warming trend reversed, however, as the shoots grew, and during much of the flowering, we experienced rare, late spring rains. This unsettled weather appeared to disrupt some of the fruit set.​

As we head into mid-summer, we have been enjoying mild, cooler-than-average temperatures with consistent morning marine fogs covering much of the Valley. What started as an early season is now looking more “normal,” meaning we are expecting harvest to begin somewhere right around the first week of September. And the vines appear to be carrying small clusters, with fewer grapes than normal. We’ve seen some evidence of veraison, but really only isolated examples thus far.

If that seems like a lot to keep track of, well, it is. So far this growing season has been anything but typical, and we’re really only halfway there, so anything can happen. Heat spikes and cooling trends, sunny days and foggy mornings. Cluster counts and average cluster weights. Veraison and green drops. We’ll be watching the weather and the vines closely for the next 8-12 weeks.​

As for the question on the tip of everyone’s tongue (“Will it be a good year?”) we don’t know the answer yet for certain. However, so far, it’s shaping up to be an ideal ripening season. And, well, history in the Napa Valley suggests that smart money is on a good, if not great, harvest nearly every single vintage.