Wine · Terminology

Dormancy

The vine's winter shutdown — no leaves, no growth, and the window for pruning.

Dormancy is the vine's winter rest. After the leaves fall, the vine stops growing, moves its carbohydrate reserves down into the trunk and roots, and survives on them until spring. Nothing visible happens for two or three months — which is exactly what makes it the vineyard's working season.

Dormancy is not idleness. Vines need a spell of cold to break dormancy properly the following spring, which is one reason grape growing is difficult in the tropics, where vines may never shut down and can be pushed to crop twice a year.

In practice

  • Pruning happens in dormancy — the single biggest decision the grower makes about next year's yield.
  • Dormant vines tolerate cold well, but below roughly −20 °C the trunk itself can be killed; growers in Canada and upstate New York bury or hill up the vines.
  • Late-winter pruning delays budburst, a common tactic against spring frost.
  • The vine's stored reserves determine how strongly it starts the next season.

Where you'll meet it

  • Any account of the vine's annual cycle — see the growing cycle guide.
  • Continental regions with brutal winters: Canada, Germany's inland sites, Moldova.
  • Icewine production, which needs the fruit to hang into deep winter.

The vineyard year, in order

Stage Roughly (N. hemisphere)
Dormancy November – March
Budburst March – April
Flowering May – June
Fruit set June
Véraison July – August
Ripening and harvest August – October

Southern-hemisphere growers run the same sequence six months out of phase, which is why an Australian "2024" and a French "2024" are almost a year apart in the bottle.

Why the cold matters

  • Chilling requirement: vines need accumulated cold hours to break dormancy evenly. Without it, budburst is straggly and the crop ripens unevenly.
  • Winter freeze is a distinct hazard from spring frost: the first kills wood, the second kills young shoots.
  • Climate change is shortening dormancy in many regions, advancing budburst and with it the frost risk.

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