#181 An Early Frost Came in on Cats' Feet This Week

24 degrees for six hours. Every event like this is unique.

Vineyard Manager Kees Stapel inspecting Cabernet Franc buds following the overnight frost of April 21, 2026.

We have few historical references for events like the one this past week. We call them “unprecedented,” because we have not seen anything quite like it before.

We had the beginnings of an early bud-break this year. We had a cold winter, with temperatures that declined steadily and stayed low, but not too low, for weeks. That meant the vines were safely dormant. Maybe that was an indicator of a later bud-break.

We then had one week of average temperatures in the mid-60’s from April 12-16. The buds began to swell rapidly, and a few began to burst. This early and rapid onset of bud-break—especially after the cold winter—seemed to be what was unprecedented.

Then came the still, cold night of April 21.

We put out temperature loggers on the night of April 20. These take temperature readings every hour. That way we know for sure exactly how low the temperatures got in each particular location in our vineyard.

We checked the readings the next morning.

What made this more severe was that there was no wind during that same six-hour period. Winds mix the air and keeps the cold, stagnant air from sitting on the vines. Below are the wind readings from our weather station during the lowest temperatures that morning. Pretty still. Pretty ugly. Not pretty.

The wind speed dropped to “zero” just after 12:35 AM and barely moved until about 4:15 AM.

So, yes, it could have been worse, but not by much.

To assess the possible damage, we look at the buds to see how much tissue has pushed out from the base of the bud on the cane. Some pushed maybe 1/4-inch at most. A few at 1/2-inch, but there were not too many of these. Many had not pushed at all.

Above is an example of a bud pushed to about 3/4-inch from the cane. We had very, very few of these.

Our assessment actually is inconclusive at this point. The small number of buds that pushed to 1/2-inch from the cane have sustained damage. Those that had pushed only 1/4-inch, appeared to have less noticeable damage, at least not yet.

But, in fact, it is too early to tell how much damage occurred. We will really know in a month after all the early shoots have emerged.

And provided we do not see temperatures again that we saw this week, we should be okay. We are proceeding, as usual, with cautious optimism.