A solitary, May flower.

It's cold, it's wet - very unfortunate weather.  If I were a Pinot grigio flower bud I would not want to make my debut in the meteorological conditions that Vinoland is experiencing right now.  Thankfully, my grapevines do not have the same distaste for precipitation as does their guardian/pruner.  (Which begs the question, what is the exact nature of my relationship with those hundreds of green, fuzzy things out there?)  Mother Nature is in charge and when it is time to flower, it is time to flower.  Rain be damned.

Bad Week.

I'm so glad that TIME magazine (September 25 2017 issue) summed up the 2017 growing season for its readership in one small sentence, albeit in a large red dot.
Yes, admittedly, it did get a little toasty earlier this month.  The mercury climbed to 108 °F in Vinoland and got as high as 114 °F up in Rutherford.  Grapevines do not thrive in extremely hot weather, not many plants do. However, with careful canopy management and an effective irrigation programme - throughout the entire growing season, not just when it is hot - most vineyards fare quite well.  The vast majority of Napa's growers will have planned ahead to ensure that their vineyards could withstand a heatwave.  Consequently, because of these best management practices, vineyards valley-wide saw very little raisining.
My sense of the 2017 growing season is that it has been a rather average one, more normal in many respects.  It isn't that unusual to experience changeable weather in any growing period.  The vineyards of the Napa Valley may, or may not, encounter bud-killing frosts in late spring, rainy days in early summer and the occasional spell of exceptionally high temperatures, and survive it all.  The sky is not falling down.
Curious as to what passes as a 'Good Week' in TIME?  Fast food chain, Chipotle, is now serving up a spicy cheese at all of its restaurants.  Very hot news indeed.

Baby, it's cold outside.

And I'm loving it.  The past five mornings have been white and bright.
After so much rain last Thursday, 3.5 inches fell in just under 5 hours, the sunny, dry, crisp weather has been a more than welcome respite. Of course, all that rain meant there was plenty of moisture about to actually freeze and the resulting 1/8 inch of hoarfrost over every surface, including Vinoland's grapevines, made for some spectacular sugar-sprinkled vistas on my early morning walks with Vinodog 2.  And it made everything seem just that little bit more Christmassy.  Love it.

Steady mercury.

Well, the mercury had been fairly steady in the high 30s °F all autumn, until this morning when it took a nose-dive and reached 22° F.  And that was recorded on the thermometer that is protected below Vinoland's deck: the lowest temperature recorded in Napa was 19° F, and that's quite chilly for here.
Brrr!  Forget the wine, pass me the Cadbury Drinking Chocolate.

May flowers 2.

Finally, grape flowers in the Pinot gris - all two of them! I have been checking on a daily basis to see if bloom was ever going to get started this year, only to come away each time disappointed. The weather has been unseasonably cool this spring and sunny days have been in short supply. I have heard reports that in the Carneros AVA Chardonnay vines planted there are only about 10-15% through bloom.

What is surprising to me is that bloom didn't begin in the Orange muscat block first, it usually does, but then it seems that 2011, like 2010, is going to be an unusual growing season. I estimate that bloom in Vinoland is about 2 weeks later than last year.

Great, another shortened growing season in the Tundra!