May in the Vineyard

It’s MAY - Annnd - They’re off - the vines are out of the gate and racing like crazy toward the finish line! It’s like watching a Derby around here! May is the time to give the vines a little parental guidance and set the tone for producing a spectacular vintage of vino!

May is Sucker Shoot Removal season! Shoots are those nebulous little leaves and buds that pop out in really weird places on the vines - such as on the trunk, close to the ground, along the undersides of the cordons. They take up space and growing energy, but they won’t result in grape clusters (which is our goal), so they have to go! Sucker shoots need to be removed to redirect energy to grapes. This activity is all done by hand in our vineyards so that we have human decision making control over each sucker. Shoot removal is primarily focused on removal from trunks and those growing in the wrong direction along the fruiting cordon.

Please cross your fingers for us - it’s too late now to tuck baby vines back into bed. We made the selection of our vineyard plots based primarily on having mountains that protect us from a late Spring frost, but frost danger is at its height in May.

IN OTHER MAY NEWS - May is our annual celebration of LIME GREEN - our 55 acres of grape vines and peach, apple, pear orchards and fiddlehead ferns and trees and lawns are all back to a lovely lime green!

1. May 18th is Winestock - our groovy wine, beer, food, music celebration of Spring.

2. Big Big News about the Wine Loves Chocolate shop! Technology has caught up with us! You are now free to Pick Your Own favorite chocolates and put them all in your chocolate box! The old adage “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get” no longer applies. In the tasting room or online from all over America you can now fill your own box of chocolate and have it delivered right to your door!

3. Dirt Road Wine Academy Degree - Get it at your next wine ed class and start earning free classes and other cool prizes!

4. Hotspot Hub where you can come and get some work done with high speed internet and cell service - and coffee, tea, sodas, water, snacks, lunchables, desks, charging cables, walking trails. mountains, walking trails, Zoomability, podcast gear, office equipment and porches. Some of our favorite local businesses were hatched at Little Washington Winery! We’re open Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday 11-5. Walk in. Find a spot. Work.

Bud Break in the vineyard … And, so it begins!

Welcome to the Little Washington Winery Blog where we uncork the journey of making wine … Grab a glass and let’s toast to the lighter side of libations!

Bud break is the most glorious (and scary) moment in the vineyard each spring as the grape vines wake up from their winter dormancy.

All winter long, grapevines stand lifeless and bare, then, just before Spring starts peeking around the corner, we get very antsy and do our best to convince them to stay in bed just a little bit longer. If frost gets them once they are out it’s a very bad thing! But, as the temperature rises and days lengthen, those baby vines are suddenly bursting with vitality & ready to grow!

Have you ever longed (like us) to get up close and personal with a grapevine? Do it! Watch the vineyards grow every time you come up the staircase to our entrance! That giant staircase is our monitor vineyard where we watch for what needs to happen next throughout the season to get these grapes turned into vino! You can see every stage of growing a vineyard right here on our staircase! Please don’t pluck or eat or try to take the pretty leaves until we say so! 

Ready or not - here we go!