Queen Grenache Blanc: Considering Micro-Growth

Budbreak 2021

Yay! Vintage 2021 is underway, and Queen Grenache Blanc is growing beautifully. With warmer daytime temperatures, I like to think she is eager to keep stretching up and out. Budbreak came not long after my last post, and there have been daily noticeable small changes. I’m watching tiny unfurling leaves, little stems getting longer - and today I discovered the first flower buds hidden among the leaves!

Beginning to stretch her wings

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about micro-growth. In January, while waiting for Queen Grenache Blanc to emerge from dormancy, I moved all of my other plants from the side of the garden by the fence to the side by the house. It’s maybe a 4 foot difference, but with that slight shift in position, the light is different, and my plants started to grow in new ways. These plants had been in their various spots for several years, and I was frankly quite astonished at how much they changed just by being moved a few feet. It struck me as a heavy metaphor for the power of change and unanticipated growth in our lives.

She’s Off & Running!

The last year has felt like one really, really long day. But in noticing the changes in my garden, I started to realize that maybe I’ve had some micro-growth, too. I’ve witnessed micro-growth in my world in the form of new friends, connections, and trying new things at while at home. I’ve been inspired by people who think outside of the box of “what is possible”, and I’ve begun to stretch my beliefs about what I can do. Like many of us, the last year has helped me prioritize what and who is important, and how I want to live my life. My best life.

Hope: First Flower Bud of 2021

I think Spring is the perfect time to stop and take a moment to inspect, honor and celebrate the micro-growth in our gardens and our lives - to get excited by the tiny changes and to believe in possibility again. From Queen Grenache Blanc and I, Happy Spring, and may you find the courage to grow in your own beautiful way.

The Queen, Grenache Blanc, Part 2

It’s been two weeks of warmer temperatures with quite a bit of sunshine since pruning day. Queen Grenache Blanc has been quietly observing the changes in the color of the light and the slope of the sun. This weekend, she surprised me by starting to show growth in her swelling buds. In fact, one looks like it might break soon! Yay, little baby!

Budbreak is officially the start of the growing season, signaling that the vine has moved from dormancy to starting this year’s growth. It begins when the tiny buds on a vine grow enough to show a bit of green leaf, almost like a baby bird cracking out of its shell with its tiny beak. Once the bud has broken, the growth unfolds slowly but steadily. Spring rains won’t deter it, and the changes in temperature between cooler nights and warmer days actually help the growth along. We have to cross our fingers for no frost, since this can zap the buds and any green growth, eliminating any hope of fruit. In truth, it’s unlikely where I live that we will get frost again this year, so I’m confident that things will continue along as they should.

The 2021 growing season is very close to starting!! Stay tuned!!

Introducing, the Queen, Grenache Blanc

In March of 2013, I became a Vine Mama. Yep, that’s right- I had a baby grapevine gifted to me, and my life changed for the better. While it hasn’t been easy, and there were definitely days when I thought I was crazy to even embark on this new journey, that sprawling leafy green canopy and those cheery little green-purple grape bunches smiling up at me have been totally worth it.

My baby Grenache Blanc, aka Queen Grenache Blanc, is from Tablas Creek Vineyard in California but in her heart, she is truly “une française” (a French girl). In fact, when I adopted her, I learned that she is actually descended from Château Beaucastel in France! Tablas Creek was founded in 1989 by two of the international wine community’s leading families: the Perrin family, proprietors of Château Beaucastel in the Rhône Valley in France, and the Hass family of Vineyard Brands in California. The imported cuttings from Château Beaucastel form the selection of grapevine material from which all of Tablas Creek’s wines are made. My little grapevine gets to stand proudly with this story as her heritage.

What does a grapevine look like as it grows? I’m going to take you along Queen Grenache Blanc’s journey this year. But here is a photo of her as a baby- so tiny and cute!

She’s gotten steadily taller and stronger, as little ones do, and while she lives in a large black pot on my patio and not on a rolling vineyard hill, she’s had a happy life. Her sunny South facing spot on my patio is beside the house, so she benefits from warmth on her leaves and bunches directly from the sun, and indirectly from the heat reflected off of the house and up off of the flagstone patio. Thankfully, the cold and damp which settles on the ground across from her pot does not affect her much.

Today is Valentine’s Day 2021, and this is what she looks like today:

I just pruned her last weekend when the sun was shining here in Redwood City, CA. I wanted to be a bit more diligent this year about her pruning. Last year I kept putting it off, letting buds start to form on 2019’s growth, and when I did prune back her wild arms, I did so rather harshly and probably cut back too far. Her resulting growth wasn’t as expansive as past years, with less greenery and fewer bunches than years past. So this year, I have been careful to leave 2 buds per spur in the hopes that she produces more bunches and lots of foliage this year. Stay tuned as we watch her grow!