It's Official - Spring is Here

Is there an official start to spring ...... that all depends on who you’re asking. According to the Meteorological calendar, Spring starts on the 1st March and ends on the 31st of May every year. Whereas the Astronomical seasonal calendar, looks at equinoxes (when day and night are equal) and solstices (the longest and shortest days), and the official start to Spring is variable, between the 19-21st March. In the vineyard, you will often hear us saying it was an 'early' or 'late' Spring as we are watching what is happening in the vines, irrespective of the date as the vines will be reacting to the actual weather and temperatures. 

Looking back at the last of the winter months, Winter 2023/24 has been mild. After a blustery January with storms Henk, Isha and Jocelyn blowing in from the West, February was more peaceful with no named storms but it still hit the record books. In England it was the warmest February on record and with that came lots of rain, with some counties in the South recording twice the average rainfall. 

March has started warm and wet and in the vineyard, the vines are waking from their winter dormancy. Pruning and pulling out are now complete and this week we are tying down the canes to the vines. Our first pruning workshop, took place on a rare dryish day at the end of February and thank you to those who attended. We hope you enjoyed the session and the opportunity to gets hands on in the vines with some 'pulling out'.... a very laudable effort by all. The end of pruning is a very satisfying feeling, as the vineyard looks 'neat and tidy' ready for the upcoming season.