Smudge pots

Spring freezes are one of the defining facts of growing wine grapes in New Mexico. Warm afternoons wake the vines up; a clear, still night can then drop hard below freezing right when the new shoots are most vulnerable.

This is what one cold hour does to a young shoot. This is why we don't sleep on freeze nights.

When the forecast turns, we set smudge pots down the rows and light them in the coldest hours before dawn. The photo at the top of this post is what that looks like — not romantic at 4 AM, but on a still, clear night it buys us the few degrees that matter: a vine that freezes now doesn't get a do-over. Those few cold hours decide whether there are grapes this season or not.

Every freeze event teaches us something about how cold air moves across this property — which rows chill first, where the pots matter most. That map gets better every year.