Wine Word of the Week: Bud break



By Kori ~ June 23rd, 2009.

Since I am hosting this month’s Wine Book Club and will be posting the roundup on Thursday, Wine Word of the Week moved to Tuesday just for this week.

Wine Word of the WeekThis week’s Wine Word of the Week is bud break.

Official definition from Jancis Robinson’s The Oxford Companion to Wine:
Budbreak, or budburst, is a stage of annual vine development during which small shoots emerge from vine buds in the spring. This process begins the new growing season and signals the end of dormancy, their period of winter sleep. The first sign that budbreak is imminent is bleeding, when the vines begin to drip water from pruning cuts. The buds left at winter pruning begin to swell in the few weeks prior to budbreak, and budbreak itself is marked by the first signs of green in the vineyard, as the first young leaves unfold and push through the bud scales.

Layman’s terms from Kori:
Bud break, when shoot growth starts and you begin to see green, marks the beginning of the annual growth cycle of the vine.


Filed under: Wine Word of the Week

Comments are closed.