Vineyard expansion levels off on North Coast

Ending five straight years of expansion, new vineyard development leveled off on the North Coast in 2014 as growers turned their attention to replanting existing vineyards.

Figures released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture showed there were 132,004 acres of vineyards in Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino and Lake counties in 2014, a decline of 0.5 percent from 2013’s record-setting 132,697 acres.

More than 3,000 acres were not producing grapes - the most in three years. The vast majority of these vineyards are being replanted and are not yet mature enough to bear fruit. The flurry of replanting is the result of three consecutive bountiful crops, topped by last year’s record $1.46 billion harvest, which have given North Coast growers the financial resources to reinvest in their vineyards.

“There’s a lot of replanting of vineyards going on,” said Sonoma County Agriculture Commissioner Tony Linegar. “This has happened over the last several years.”

Sonoma County had 59,974 acres of vineyards, a 0.4 percent decrease from the 2013 record, according to the USDA. But non-bearing vineyards increased 13 percent, to 1,014 acres.

Lake County was the only place on the North Coast where vineyard acreage expanded, increasing 0.7 percent to 8,782 acres. Vineyard acreage declined 2.4 percent in Mendocino County, to 17,333 acres, and dipped 0.2 percent in Napa County, to 45,915 acres.

A good barometer of replanting activity can be seen at Novavine, which supplies grapevines to growers on the North Coast and across the United States. The Santa Rosa company has sold around 4 million vines annually over the past four years, said Jay Jensen, Novavine chief executive officer, with roughly two-thirds of its products going to replantings.

“I would say three years ago it was a frenzy,” Jensen said. “It’s not a frenzy now … but we are selling everything we make.”

At Silver Oak Cellars, vineyard manager Brad Petersen is in the midst of replanting vineyards at the old Sausal Vineyard & Winery in Alexander Valley, which his company purchased in 2012. The site has about 75 acres of vineyards, primarily small-lot zinfandel planted in the 1970s and 1980s, which are being replaced with the cabernet sauvignon vines that Silver Oak is known for.

The first 25 acres were replanted last year and should be at full production by 2019. Petersen said Silver Oak is in no rush to make the vineyard produce quickly as he wants to ensure that it develops a proper root system for the region’s most expensive grape varietal. “We want these vines to last 30 or 40 years,” he said.

The USDA report shows that new vineyard development has leveled off following a two-decade expansion that increased vineyard acreage on the North Coast by 50 percent. It reflects the fact that the most easily developed land for grapes already has been planted in Sonoma and Napa counties, analysts said. In addition, it is a sign of the increasing burden of new regulations and mounting concern over water availability in the region.

While there have been applications to develop several hundred acres of new vineyards in the Sonoma Valley, Linegar said such projects are relatively rare, compared to efforts underway to replant existing vineyards.

Overall, vineyards represent about 6 percent of Sonoma County’s land total. What’s left is land in the less prime areas, Jensen noted. He’s seen more new planting on areas such as hillsides that are away from valley floors and in peripheral areas.

The lack of hospitable land comes also with more regulation. For example, the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors adopted an ordinance in November that prevents property owners from cultivating or building on land that is 50 to 200 feet from rivers and streams.

“There are some areas that can be planted,” Petersen noted. “It’s going to be less and less all the time with the restrictions and setback.”

Water is another pressing issue. Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation last year that could limit how much water commercial and residential users are allowed to pump from underground aquifers. By June 2017, Sonoma County must form a local agency to implement policies to achieve sustainable groundwater levels in each of the area’s 14 underground basins.

“When you want to put in a vineyard, you want to know how you are going to irrigate the vineyard,” Linegar said.

Statewide, the largest white varietal in 2014 was chardonnay at 97,826 acres, roughly the same as 2013, and the top red varietal was cabernet sauvignon at 87,972 acres, up 2 percent from 2013.

Locally, Sonoma County had 15,639 acres devoted to its chardonnay crop in 2014, down 0.6 percent from the previous year. In Napa County, 19,894 acres were planted with cabernet sauvignon, up 0.4 percent.

Over at Novavine, Jensen said that cabernet sauvignon remains the most popular vine, representing around 20 percent of his sales, but that chardonnay appears to be on the rise, especially in demand from high-end vineyards around Sonoma County. Meanwhile pinot noir’s popularity has leveled off from its skyrocketing sales in the aftermath of the 2004 movie “Sideways.”

“I would say the demand for chardonnay will have doubled for us from last year to this year,” he said. Jensen said that chardonnay vine sales could equal cabernet sauvignon this year.

You can reach Staff Writer Bill Swindell at 521-5223 or bill.swindell@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @BillSwindell.