The Spring Season
The 2026 season is approximately three weeks ahead of schedule compared to the average season. With that comes apprehensive optimism about a long growing season that can create conditions for optimally ripe fruit. While we are optimistic about the year, even in early May, we have anxiety related to the potential for a late spring frost event. It is Missouri after all, so you can never know what Mother Nature may bring.
We’ve experienced late frosts in the past. The most notorious of all was the Easter Massacre of 2007. That vintage, almost all of the crop for the whole season was lost. It’s an ever-present reality of farming, being beholden to the will of nature and the elements. I like to think this fact keeps us humble and thankful, ensuring we remember the gifts we are given with each passing day. At the very least, we know that we are not in charge. We get to work with what we are given.
The East Coast Tragedy
Our friends in the Eastern United States dealt with a difficult spring, with a frost event that basically destroyed the primary and secondary buds, with some locales even losing their tertiary buds (a grapevine’s final insurance policy) and with that, their hopes for a harvest later this year. We greatly feel for them as we know the pain of a fully lost crop.
The Stone Hill Vineyards
Our vineyards, so far, are looking healthy and happy in our pleasant spring. We started hot (hard to remember those very warm days a few months ago), and now the soft temperatures and warm showers are treating our vines well. From scouting data we’ve taken so far, there has been no frost damage across any of our sites. This week, we’ve even come across the first vines in bloom. Grapevines have tiny yet beautiful flowers, and it is always an exciting moment to come across the first bloom in a season (even if it is earlier than we’d prefer). All in all, we are hopeful for a great vintage.
– Nathan Held, Vice President