Rooted Reflections: Winter + Spring 2024
As the crisp chill of winter gives way to the gentle warmth of spring, Cristom Vineyards comes alive with a breathtaking display of nature’s beauty. Our vineyards are abuzz with the promise of a new vintage. Discover some of the highlights below and we invite you to partake in the spring air yourself on your next visit.
Budbreak—Chardonnay buds began appearing in Louise Vineyard on March 21st, and varying degrees of bud burst can be found across the estate vineyards. It’s a sure sign spring has arrived.
Shearing Our Flock—Our flock of sheep was shorn on March 20th. Always striving to be interconnected on the farm, the wool was used to cover the young fruit trees we planted.
New “Z Orchard”—Speaking of fruit trees, we recently planted 40 fruit trees below the Viognier vines in Louise Vineyard: 10 apple, 10 pear, 10 peach, and 10 nectarine trees. The orchard is named “Z Orchard” in honor of our longest-serving team member (three decades) whose contributions are innumerable, Andy Zorzi, aka “Z.”
Planting the Seeds—We’ve begun preparing raised garden beds and growing plants in our greenhouse. Once the beds are ready and the daily low temperatures are high enough, we’ll transition the plants to the ground.
The garden and the orchard (in the long term), help us to foster biodiversity on our farm and nourish our team, their families, and the local community via the food bank we support.
The Estate is in Bloom—It’s a wonderful time to visit and experience the incredible bloom of our cherry trees, daffodils, daisies, tulips, and more. A tasting on our patio also treats you to views of our vibrant pollinator gardens.
Biodynamics in Action—While we’re still a month or two away from digging up the preps buried post-harvest, we have begun spreading the Valerian prep to the compost to help promote light and warmth. This month, we will also aim to perform our first spray of Prep 500 during the next waning moon cycle.
Blending Trials To Begin!—Over a nine-week period, we’ll conduct blind evaluations of each individual barrel of the 2023 vintage Pinot Noir and use that data to construct blends. We’ll blindly evaluate those blends and continue to refine. After two to three blending sessions, we decide on final blends for each wine.
