Abacela Vintage 2026 – Flowering

Weather and Climate

Spring this year has been up and down in terms of temperatures, with some very warm periods interspersed with moderately cool periods. During April and May, temperatures have been 2-4 degrees above the average during 1991-2020 over the western US. Oregon continued to experience a warm start to the year with its 5th warmest April and May over the last 131 years at 3.8°F above average. Precipitation remained below average over the western US, with Oregon also below average and virtually no snow left in the mountains beginning the warm seasons at one of the lowest levels ever recorded.

For the southwestern valleys of Oregon, including the Umpqua Valley, April and May were the 4th warmest at 4.2°F above average over the last 131 years. Since the beginning of the year, the southwestern valleys are in a precipitation deficit of over 8 inches, with most of the impact coming from lower snowfall at higher elevations.

Abacela continues to be very dry. Since the first of the year, Abacela has experienced between roughly 11 inches of rain (Figure 1), between 4-5 inches below the long term average. Six days saw precipitation amounts greater than 0.5 inches, with the highest amount occurring on February 8 at close to 1 inch. Temperatures at Abacela have been warmer than average since January, with many days at 70 degrees or above, with the highest temperatures during early June at 89-90 degrees.

Phenology

Abacela tracks phenology, important grapevine growth stages, by block and variety each year. The longest term data that we have comes from eleven variety/block combinations, which include Tempranillo, Syrah, Malbec, Merlot, and Albariño. These observations started in 1997 for Tempranillo and Syrah, with the others added to the observations over time, with all eleven combinations observed since 2010.

An early budbreak this spring has led to early flowering at Abacela. We saw the first sign of flowering in the last week of May that accelerated over the next two weeks. The earliest varieties and blocks to complete 50% flowering were Albariño on June 1 (Northeast block) and Malbec on June 3 (East Hill block). Flowering proceeded over the following week with Tempranillo on June 10 (Knoll Block). Across our main long-term observations, the average flowering in 2026 was June 5th, seven days earlier than average and one day earlier than the 2025 vintage (Figure 1). The length of time from our average budbreak to average flowering in 2026 was 57 days, six days shorter than our long-term average interval.

Figure 1 – Weather and phenological observations for Abacela from January through early June 2026. Daily maximum and minimum temperatures are shown in red and light blue, respectively, with record maximum temperatures or below 32°F indicated by the red cross and ice crystal symbols. Daily precipitation is in a darker blue bar, with days receiving greater than 0.5” of rain indicated with a raindrop. The weather data comes from our main weather station on Cobblestone Hill. The phenological events and days between events come from an eleven variety/block combination of Tempranillo, Syrah, Malbec, Merlot, and Albariño.