Always the most exciting time of the year: budburst. Wine I first bought the vineyard in 1980, budburst was during the third week in September. Apart from a brief climatic shift lasting about seven years it has been back to that same time for the past five years and remains one of the four indicators that whatever is happening to the worlds climate isn’t happening here (the others are flowering, fruit set and colour change (veraison). Budburst only just made the third week this year, being measured on the last day.