Grape harvest off to an early start in Napa Valley

NAPA VALLEY - George Sanchez said he’s been harvesting grapes for 40 years. On Wednesday, his seasonal ritual began earlier than ever in a Napa Valley vineyard soaked in a morning glow.

Sanchez directed a crew of 45 laborers who fanned out before dawn into the Game Farm vineyard, where they swiftly cut away ripened clusters of pinot noir grapes and deposited the fruit into bins.

It was the earliest harvest on record for Mumm Napa, which will use the grapes to produce sparkling wine. Previously, the earliest date Mumm had ever started picking grapes was during the 1997 crush, when it began harvest on July 23.

For Sanchez, Wednesday marked the beginning of many long days to come.

“It means the next couple of months are going to be a lot of hard work,” he said, flashing a weary grin.

The next three months will be an anxious time for growers and winemakers. To a large degree, the fate of the North Coast’s $1.5 billion grape crop rests on what happens in the coming weeks.

“You get the fruit in the barn so you don’t have to worry about it,” said Ben Vyborny, vineyard manager for Vyborny Vineyard Management, which owns the Game Farm vineyard, located off Silverado Trail between Yountville and Oakville.

Vyborny’s Australian cattle dog, Abby, tried her best to get someone to throw a stick for her. But most everyone in the vineyard Wednesday was too absorbed in work to play. A chattering buzz in Spanish blended with the sound of tractors moving along the rows, pulling large containers that began to fill with fruit by daybreak.

By midmorning, laborers had harvested 16 tons of grapes from the 4.5-acre parcel. The men were paid based on the number of baskets they picked, which for some members of the crew came out to about $24 an hour.

Overall, growers predict this season’s harvest won’t match the monster hauls of the prior three years. Last year, growers hauled in nearly 532,000 tons of grapes in Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino and Lake counties, a 6 percent decline from the record-breaking 2013 harvest.

Growers had expected an unusually early harvest this year. Following a mild winter, most vineyards on the North Coast finished bud break by February, more than a month earlier than normal.

Despite the quick start to the growing cycle, growers said cooler temperatures in spring have created uneven ripening in many vineyards. Ideally, it takes about seven days for fruit to “set” - the stage when small flowers on the vines are fertilized and transformed into tiny grapes. This year, it took three weeks in some places, said Corey Beck, president and director of winemaking for Francis Ford Coppola Winery.

He said that uneven ripening likely will force growers to thin the crop in order to maintain quality.

“Even though it’s a bit lighter, I expect the quality to be on par with the last three years, which were spectacular vintages for us,” Beck said.

That recent history coincides with a crippling drought in many parts of California. But North Coast grape growers this year were again fortunate to avoid major problems in irrigating their crops, thanks to a couple of well-timed storms that filled reservoirs and recharged aquifers.

“We’re being diligent with our water, but we’ve been fortunate to have water when most of the state does not,” said Doug McIlroy, director of winegrowing for Rodney Strong Wine Estates.

On the other hand, predictions that the coming winter will be a wet one fueled by El Niño conditions are sparking new worries among growers about getting grapes in before rains start.

“Unfortunately, we’re not growing grapes in a greenhouse,” McIlroy said. “We just have to roll with it and take whatever Mother Nature gives us.”

Smaller crop yields may actually come as a relief for those who are still dealing with a glut in the bulk wine market.

Harvest typically begins on the North Coast with fruit destined for sparkling wines, then progresses to grapes used for still wines, which make up the vast majority of the region’s crop. Sonoma County growers producing fruit for still wines predict the 2015 harvest will be about a week to 10 days earlier than last year’s.

“Unless we have a big change in the weather, we think we’ll be picking at the end of August,” said Shannon Donnell, grower relations and vineyard operations manager for Sonoma-Cutrer Vineyards, which has vineyards in the Russian River Valley.

She noted the upside to an earlier harvest.

“The earlier you start, the earlier you get it done,” she said.

You can reach Staff Writer Derek Moore at 521-5336 or derek.moore@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @deadlinederek.