In March, the vine enters a phase of its cycle called “bud break”. This means that the protective scales that cover the bud will move away, revealing the future leaves of our vine plant.
The bud break marks the end of the vines’ winter rest. Concretely, the buds surrounded by their scales begin to open and their small leavesbegin to grow. This phase of the vine cycle generally occurs in the spring, but sometimes the warm temperatures at the end of winter favor an early bud burst, in mid-March. Because two factors are essential to initiate the awakening of vegetation: heat and light, and both in sufficient quantity. If these conditions meet, the vines start their activity again: the roots resume drawing water and nutrients from the soil, the sap circulates again, and the vine produces buds which will then hatch.
This is a very delicate period for our vines, because they are then extremely fragile: in the event of early bud break, or during late frosts (at the end of April), negative temperatures (from -2°C) can burn the buds and the small leaves that just emerged, which dry up and wither, leaving little hope of a harvest in the fall.