Early Spring Again - Dont Get Your Hopes Up

The vines that I have pruned are bleeding sap like crazy (see photo) so they are well on their way to bud break.  In checking the vines they all look really healthy and cutting into the buds they also look healthy with a high winter survival rate.  The only one that was not great was the pinot noir as it shows lots of fungal pressure on the canes.  This is foresure a carry over from the fungal pressure we experienced on the pinot noir last summer.  It was the mildest winter that we've recorded yet with coldest temp being -15c and as of March 31 it was 22c in the vineyard.  So in all there is a strong likelihood that we'll have allot of healthy buds and flowers this spring.

The down side - seems that there is never the perfect year, there is always something to contend with.  If you get a mild winter, good bud survival and lots of fruit, lots of rain and heat in the summer and you thought it was going to be the best year - then you get fugal pressure.  My concern with the early spring is that the vines push buds too early and then we get a late spring frost that kills them all.  Time will tell. Fingers crossed in the mean time.