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Linden Vineyards, 3708 Harrels Corner Road, Linden, VA (2026)

10/15/2026

Draining Reds Early. A w**emaker's job is to identify and emphasize the best parts of each vintage. As this year's red w**es finish fermenting we are tasting pretty cherry and raspberry characteristics along with a stony mineral acidity. This may well be the strength of our 2026 red w**es, so this week we are draining the vats early and gently pressing any remaining w**e out of the skins. Cuvaison refers to the length of time that the skins and the new w**e stay together. Usually the duration is about four weeks. But this year two weeks is enough. The 2026 growing season did not provide desirable silky skin tannins and we don't want the finesse and purity that is unfolding compromised by a coarse finish.

Some of the w**es are still actively fermenting and have some sweetness. Residual sugar masks some of the nuance of the w**e. So we'll wait before putting the w**es into barrel. Right now the cellar is full of a variety of small stainless-steel tanks temporarily holding the new w**es until they calm down and better express their personalities.

All this is somewhat new to us. This year many of our time-honored methods have been abandoned, replaced by winging it and trusting our palates to make decisions.

10/04/2026

A Tale of Two Terroirs: Avenius and Boisseau Vineyards. In Linden's first decade we blended our various vineyard sites to make one Chardonnay and one Cabernet, but we came to the realization that this was hindering our understanding of terroir. So in 1997 we started a program of separate bottlings of each vineyard site (when appropriate). These single vineyard bottlings have now become the foundation that defines Linden.

Hardscrabble Vineyard surrounds the w**ery and is the oldest (1985) and largest (18 acres) planting. Avenius Vineyard is a 5 acre vineyard planted in 1996. Boisseau, just shy of 5 acres, was planted in 2000.

The high elevation Avenius Vineyard is Linden's coolest site and is known for its mineral acidity and long finish. Shari Avenius continues to manage her vines intuitively and unconventionally. These w**es reward aging. In contrast, Boisseau is our "hot spot" located 6 miles west of Linden on a west facing ridge overlooking Front Royal in the Shenandoah Valley. Richard Boisseau's vineyard management style is empirical and meticulous. The w**es have more weight, alcohol, and fruit.

Fall 2026 W**egrower's Selection

The W**egrower’s Selection includes six-bottle shipments twice a year of small-lot bottlings, unusual w**es, and vintages of which we are particularly proud.

This fall's W**egrower's Selection will focus on the smaller single vineyard bottlings of Avenius and Boisseau. It will include the 2020 Avenius Red, 2022 Avenius Red, 2023 Boisseau Red, 2023 Boisseau Viognier, 2021 Avenius Chardonnay, and 2023 Avenius Chardonnay. The cost is $323 (plus relevant taxes and $15 shipping). We ship via UPS to Florida, Maryland, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, and Washington, DC. The w**es will ship the first week of November or you can pick them up.

https://www.lindenvineyards.com/w**egrowers-selection?mc_cid=ec2d919e29&mc_eid=8641c5c3ec

10/02/2026

Respect the Vintage. W**e is a reflection of both place (terroir) and each growing season (vintage). 2026 has been unique, but not in the way we would like. This week we start and finish red grape harvest. The weather over the last few weeks has been challenging. Grapes don’t really ripen much under cloudy skies. Misty showers can cause berry splitting and rot (gardeners: think tomatoes). Fortunately it has been cool. This delays the problems, but the fuse has been lit. Today temperatures were in the 80s and we may get more rain. It was not a tough decision to make the call to pick everything.

Gentle Extraction

This year our red grape skins are fragile and not fully ripe. The skins contain all a grape’s color and most of the tannins. Red w**e juice ferments together with skins pulling out color and tannins. This is called extraction. In the past three ripe vintages we crushed the grapes, fermented warm (80s), and let the fermented w**es soak with the skins for up to 28 days. This was an appropriately aggressive approach given the vintages’ high-quality tannins. But this year calls for restraint. If we made the w**es in the same manner they would be hard, bitter, and unbalanced. We will not be crushing the grapes. This is called whole berry fermentation. If the skins remain intact there will be less tannins extracted from both the skins and the seeds. Fermentation temperatures will be kept cooler (in the 70s). The new w**e will be drained away from the skins quickly, once fermentation is over. This would only be about 10 days. The goal is to have a fruity, lighter style w**e that is balanced and appropriate for the vintage.

09/18/2026

Flagship Tasting. For our 40th harvest at Hardscrabble we decided to celebrate one of our best vintages in recent past: 2023. An ideal dry, cool growing season produced a crop with concentration, precise acidity, and generous tannin structure. We felt a need to flood the zone with these beauties to remind us of recent glory days.

The comparative tasting features Hardscrabble Chardonnay from 2020 and 2023 (new release), Clarets from 2022 and 2023, and new releases of the 2023 Avenius Red and 2023 Hardscrabble Red.

Reservations are recommended, especially with beautiful fall weather. Walk-ins are welcome, as space allows.

https://www.exploretock.com/lindenvineyards/

09/16/2026

Harvest Update. I'm not going to lie. 2026 has been a challenging vintage from beginning to end. However, given modern global advances in viticulture, technology, and spin messaging, all vintages are now above average. This is comforting.

Whites: Slim Pickings

Tomorrow we finish up the last of white w**e harvest (with the exception of Petit Manseng). Our old vine Chardonnay grapes needed every last kiss of sunshine. It is the majority component of Hardscrabble Chardonnay and has been struggling to ripen. Yields for white w**es have been down because of weakened vines from previous years' infestations of Spotted Lanternfly, frost, and poor weather during pollination. August and early September rains resulted in lower potential alcohols (most w**es will be in the 12% range), but high-quality acids. Fresh and mineral will probably be common descriptors.

Reds: Anxiously Waiting

Reds still need a sustained run of good weather. Good is the critical word here. We are more than a bit worried about next week's forecast. The crop is ample, especially for Cabernet Sauvignon which buds late (after the April 21 frost) and flowered under ideal conditions (unlike Chardonnay). The weather over the next two to three weeks will determine the style and quality of red w**es from the 2026 vintage.

09/02/2026

Unveiling the Personality of Vintage 2026. Linden started harvest on Monday, August 31. Sauvignon Blanc was first up to bat. What is typically a two-day pick was accomplished in just one day: the result of the April 21 frost. The Avenius Vineyard produced about 50% of normal. Hardscrabble was about 25% of normal.

But what really matters is that we get our first glimpse into the style and personality of the vintage. The first words that come to mind are “mineral, tension, refreshing, and cleansing”. Judging from tasting the grapes and the juice, along with the sugar and acid analysis, we can expect lower alcohol and some classic “Sauvy” bracing acidity. I hope the Chesapeake has a good oyster crop in a couple years.

Chardonnay will follow on Labor Day Monday. The grapes could use a few more days of sun along with some cooler nights and fresher dew points. So far it looks as though the Chardonnays could follow suit as to style.

08/28/2026

The Courage to do Nothing. It's looking like harvest will start next week. The vines are healthy. Too healthy in some cases. The rains and heat of August have stimulated exuberant vine growth. This is not desirable. The vines should be focusing on ripening grapes, not producing new leaves. In an attempt to slow them down we turned to our w**emaking philosophy of doing nothing. I'll explain.

The level of control in w**emaking has been debated ever since the advent of modern science. In the 1980s we embraced cutting edge w**emaking methods, but over the decades we have weaned ourselves from most interventions. In the cellar we slowly landed on the best path to express terroir in our w**es by doing as little as possible. It means not adding stuff from a bag or a bottle (acids, tannins, enzymes, fining agents). It means trusting the w**es even when they go in a direction that may seem undesirable. Often the w**es require years of aging before they gather themselves and show their best. The courage to do nothing requires time and patience.

In the vineyard we remained more controlling: positioning shoots, removing leaves, hedging excessive growth. Mowing, spraying, weeding made for a manicured vineyard. But climate change forced us to rethink everything we do in the vineyard. This year has been a vineyard management challenge. Frost left some vines with no grapes and weakened structure. Then record heat sunburned exposed clusters. August rains stimulated late season shoot growth.

In arid regions vineyards are irrigated. In wetter regions we occasionally try to evacuate water out of the soil by allowing weeds, grass, cover crops and vines to grow without intervention. It's a jungle out there and it is intentional. The goal is to build a big biomass that can suck (transpire) the water out of the soil.

The vineyard does not look pretty. It's a bit embarrassing, but it's the best way to slow the vines down and get them back into balance. Now that the soils are beginning to dry out we are returning to some hedging, but with caution as next week could bring record heat and the clusters can't be too exposed. We need autumn to make an appearance.

08/21/2026

Preparing. Today was our first day for grape sampling and lab tests. Vintage 2026 is now being analyzed, examined, and scrutinized. In the morning samples of grapes from Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay were methodically taken: ten grapes from 15 vines of each variety. Shari Avenius then squeezes the juice out of each grape sample and runs lab work on the acidity and sugar levels. By the way, this is her 36th vintage operating Linden’s lab. We then do organoleptic evaluations of the juice. This is a fancy way of saying that we smell and taste the juice, and then take notes.

Looks like another early harvest, at least for Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. We were hoping that the recent rains would slow ripening so that the vines would take advantage of cooler weather. But our estimate is now a start date of September 1. It would be preferable to avoid an August harvest as I am in climate change denial, which is a stage of grieving.

August has been fairly tropical with heat, humidity, and storms. The rain is keeping sugar levels aka potential alcohols) down, which is a relief after so many high alcohol vintages. That could change somewhat if we get a dry, windy, low humidity stretch next week. Acidities are lower than usual. This will probably force our “picking” hand as there is nothing less appealing than a flabby Sauvignon Blanc.

Right now the forecast for next week looks promising. We’ll see if that comes to fruition.

08/14/2026

The 2026 Red W**e Pivot. Not the August we were hoping for. Just as the vines were transitioning from growing leaves to ripening grapes it rained. A lot. This stimulated new green growth at the expense of ripening.

I'm not so worried about the whites. In fact it could be a blessing as a delay in ripening can push harvest into the sweet spot of mid- to late-September when the nights are cool and the days are bright and clement. But the reds are of concern. Veraison (color change) is uneven. Some clusters are already purple and others still green. We anticipated this in the spring when bud break was uneven and sporadic. This was most likely due to the very cold winter along with the depletion of carbohydrates by the gluttonous sucking of the invasive Spotted Lanternfly. August rains exacerbated the situation. The vines are confused and have reverted back to a vegetative cycle instead of concentrating on ripening.

Red w**e quality is defined by the suppleness and elegance of tannins. The Holy Grail of big, long-lived red w**es is a massive but silky tannin structure. Tannins come mostly from grape skins. Synchronistic maturity is a key to achieving this Holy Grail. The grapes should ripen uniformly so that all the grape skin tannins are at peak maturity.

Well, frankly that's not going to happen this year. But it is not all doom and gloom. It is reality. We are farmers and the best farmers are stoics. This is the hand we were dealt and we will still make some memorable red w**es. We approach our craft with intuition. If the skin tannins are less ideal, we can ease back on extraction during fermentation. Cooler fermentation temperatures, less movements, and less time in contact with the skins. This emphasizes fruit and freshness rather than ponderous structure and mouth-coating tannins.

So as we prepare and plan for vintage 2026 we look for palate guidance not from Bordeaux or Napa, but from Burgundy and Beaujolais: w**es that always please with fruit and acidity rather than tannins and oak. So many w**es to learn from and so little time.

08/04/2026

“Every time I open a bottle of w**e, it is an amazing trip somewhere.”
- José Andrés
José Andrés

Linden Vineyards

10/15/2026

10/04/2026

10/02/2026

09/18/2026

09/16/2026

09/02/2026

08/28/2026

08/21/2026

08/14/2026

08/04/2026

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