For these last couple of weeks, British vineyards have been waking up to the surprise of budburst. Usually we would experience this later on in the month, but all of the surprisingly mild weather (between all the rain) means buds are waking up early.

This would be unquestionably good news in a less marginal climate, but in one such as our own (the UK), it is making us all feel worried. Frosts are now a significant risk, so although we are perhaps 2 weeks earlier than normal, that is an extra 2 weeks to think about frost. In 2020 we got hit by a frost on May 11th & 12th, so we’re not out the woods for a long time!

Thankfully our old vines and our relatively northerly location means we haven’t *quite* hit uniform budburst. It’s not far off at all, but our 53 year old Kerner vines certainly know that it’s still too early to be waking up. The benefits of old vines 😉

So please pray to the weather gods for us. If this is now genuinely spring, these extra weeks will help us immensely…just no frost please!! 🙈