Bud Break in wine country is truly an inspirational visual. What more tells us that spring is here… and- oh yes- that life is special, then those little green buds bursting to life across Napa and Sonoma?
Did you know: the energy to facilitate this growth comes from reserves of carbohydrate stored in roots and wood of the vine from the last growth cycle.
Flowering begins approximately 40 to 80 days after bud break.
In turn this is followed (almost immediately) by the stage of “fruit set.” This is when the mojo begins to happens. If this was a street corner trick, we’d all start to ohhhh and ahhhh this point. Nature, my friends, is the greatest magician of all. Basically, here be your seed and grape berry… which eventually gives the oh-so-photogenic grape cluster you’ve seen on the cover of just about every single magazine in the known universe.
Then we get to harvest. Crush. Stomping Tom Connors maybe? But we’d be getting ahead of ourselves. For now, let’s enjoy the sights of bud break 2011 across wine country.
Here are some the most gorgeous visuals we’ve seen across the WWW. I’m sure there may be better ones out there… who knows, this is just my attempt to celebrate the passing of the rain, and the coming of the sun. I mean, isn’t that reason enough to celebrate?
