“If you commit your seeds to the fields, you must expect years of barrenness as well as years of plenty. You have submitted yourself to the rule of Fortune.” – Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy, 523 AD

        Early June finds us on the cusp of flowering with ideal bloom weather. Sunny, dry days with little wind and no rain allow for quick fertilization, clean calyptra shedding, and a boost in energy production required for prosperous fruit set. We’re about 150 GDDs ahead of average. Despite the frost and subsequent cold, vines are on track for an early harvest, although a lot can (and likely will) change during summer. While flowering feels promising and is a welcome relief, we’re in unique, uncharted territory for the next steps.

            The repercussions of the frost will be with us for years. White fruit loss will be felt next year with smaller releases of varietals like Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. Red inventory reductions will be spread throughout 2029 and 2030, when most of Virginia, besides the winegrowers, will have forgotten about the lost crop. Those difficulties wait in our future. The more immediate repercussion must be addressed now – how do we handle notably asynchronous fruit development?

            North Gate Petit Manseng is a 1.5-acre block in front of our tasting room. On April 21st, the low dropped to 29F, killing all newly opened shoots. Fortunately (Fortune being relative, mind you), only 50% of the buds were open. Those that had not yet “broken” were insulated by the vine’s protective layer of plant hairs, referred to as tomentum, tightly wound threads covering emerging buds. For the Petit Manseng, the tomentum did its job; wooly plant material acted as mini-blankets, insulating each tiny bud from the cold.

            Thus, the North Gate Petit Manseng lost 50% of its primary buds while the other encased 50% were undamaged. This doesn’t equate to a 50% loss, however, as frost-damaged buds push “secondaries,” literal backups for emergencies such as this. Secondaries grow identically to primaries with one vital difference: not every secondary contains a cluster, and when they do, the clusters will be smaller with fewer berries.

           A 50% bud kill might mean, in this instance, something like a 25% crop loss. In the big picture, that’s not too bad. There is a winegrowing issue, because the primaries and secondaries are on different ripening schedules. Shoots on the same vine will have started their season as much as two weeks apart, posing an unusual quandary.

            Two weeks is a big deal for ripeness. One week is a big deal. Often, three days is a big deal. For Petit Manseng, where the balance of acid and sugar is difficult to manage on a normal year, an inability to properly assess ripeness or the presence of overly acidic fruit in the fermenter may pose a significant problem. Today, we can see the differences between primaries and secondaries quite plainly. Our ability to differentiate will end once the secondaries hit veraison.

            So how to proceed?

            A simple answer, and one likely necessary for high quality red wines, is to remove the secondary clusters, thereby removing all potentially under-ripe fruit. When the goal is to fully ripen red grapes, this approach will be necessary, although it’s easier said than done in a vintage when most vineyards are reeling from losses far worse than 25%.

            Another option, and one I believe many colleagues throughout the state will adopt, is to reconsider the best use of a block. Let’s exit the Petit Manseng and enter a Cabernet Franc vineyard with a similar blend of primaries and secondaries. Uneven ripeness in Cab Franc is unacceptable in red wine production but might work well for a rosé or sparkling pick, where the mishmash of phenolics, which will still pose some winemaking challenges, isn’t as detrimental.

            We plan to make these decisions in each frost-effected block by fruit set, which on average should occur in the second week of June. At that point, the intended final wine will dictate our approach to leaf and lateral removal, so the vineyard crew needs to know the goal in each block. This will yield the best results for wines we’ll be pouring in the coming years.