Resilience.
On the morning of April 21, 2026, we lost roughly 50% of our crop in just a span of a few hours due to frost.
As I approached the vineyard that morning, instead of seeing beautiful and brilliant hues of green illuminated by the sun, I saw dull shades of grey and brown, with upturned leaves as if a storm was ready to hit. From there I saw a sea of wilted shoots showing no signs of life. A million thoughts raced through my head. What the heck do I do? Will there be any wine to make this harvest? All these fancy concrete tanks to fill with…what exactly? It was a stark reminder that we are not in charge, and that farming can be heartbreaking.
Albariño is totally fried. Zero for this year. Half of Cabernet Franc is gone. Fortunately, Cabernet Sauvignon should be OK since it’s a bit behind the others as far bud break is concerned. In the 16 years of being around this vineyard, I’ve never seen anything like this before.
However, I quickly realized that yesterday wasn’t about loss. It was about the resilience of my team, and all of my winegrowing friends in the DMV who had a day that was equally as devasting as mine. As I spoke to my team and a number of growers in the area, we briefly grieved with one another, but then our conversations quickly turned to jokes knowing that this is what we signed up for. We take the good with the bad – you can’t cherry pick what you like or don’t like about growing wine. You just grow wine. Or in some cases in 2026, you grow a little bit of it. We experienced the joys of picture-perfect ripening conditions in 2025, but then the pendulum swings and we feel the burn of losing 50% of our crop in the spring of 2026. We keep marching forward because our love for this life as a winegrower is unconditional.
The 2026 vintage might be small in volume, but we’ll do our best to keep it big in character. We will only be making wine from the most resilient vines this year. That is something to look forward to, and something we’ll be proud of sharing with you all once the time comes.Adam
