With the winter pruning complete, spring is well and truly upon us.
Budburst is in its infancy in Marlborough, with the early varieties such as Pinot Noir and Chardonnay having one or so leaves unfolded, around 3-5cm. As the warmer days come about, these early varieties will soon be followed by the Sauvignon Blanc which is in a stage we call ‘woolly bud’. Over the last week temperatures are rising, and you can almost literally stand back and watch the leaves grow in front of you!
In Gisborne, our earliest region, Budburst seems to be nice and even across all varieties with the shoots around 15cm long, tracking a week to ten days later than average.
In Hawkes Bay, shoots are probably two weeks behind that of Gisborne with growth of 5-10cm. Once again the winter has been kind and subsequently we are seeing nice and even budburst with the region one week behind average.
As the vines grow, what seems exponentially, in the next 3-4 weeks we will be counting the inflorescences (flowers) to see how many bunches (fertilised inflorescences) the vines are carrying.
And so it continues for what seems to be a wonderful start to yet another successful growing season.
Ollie, Kim Crawford Viticulturist
