Sonoma County vineyard manager on the next 10 years of harvest

Right now in Wine Country, our farmers of grapes are in their finest hour: harvest.

The seasonal tradition, a rite of passage for winemakers and winegrowers, is even more compelling this year given the crossroads we’re at with climate change, artificial intelligence and farming practices.

Alec Roser, co-owner of Windsor-based Advanced Viticulture, shared his outlook on where Sonoma County is headed over the next decade. With 32 clients, his vineyard-management company farms grapes across Sonoma County, from Annapolis in the remote northwest of the county to the Carneros above San Pablo Bay and from the coastal hills of Bodega to the border with Napa County.

Climate change

Pinot and chardonnay will continue to dominate over the next decade, Roser said. But with these varietals, wineries are pushing the boundaries west, closer to the ocean.

Wineries also will experiment more with varietals that are heat-tolerant, Roser said. These include Bordeaux varietals like cabernet franc and merlot and Italian varietals like sangiovese and barbera.

Regarding water use, Roser expects more moratoriums if droughts persist.

“It seems like we’re fluctuating between dry and wet years,” he said. “So restricting water will depend on droughts. It will all depend on Mother Nature.”

Artificial intelligence and automation

Right now, 100% of Roser’s clients are asking for the fruit to be hand-picked. But he expects more automation to kick in over the next decade.

“Wineries will be forced to do more mechanical farming purely because of the expense of fruit and labor costs,” he said. “I expect them to look for a middle ground, with more automation.”

Automation is already in motion in farming practices, Roser said, referring to another arm of his company, Advanced Viticulture Consulting. Currently, Roser said, the company relies on automation to irrigate its vineyards. It also has a multitude of sensors in the vineyards to monitor soil moisture and plant stress.

Farming practices

In 10 years, Roser expects, Sonoma County will entirely forgo the use of Round-up and its main ingredient, glyphosate, in all its vineyards. The herbicide is still widely used in farming in Sonoma and Napa counties, even though it’s been linked to cancers such as non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. In 2015, the International Agency for the Research on Cancer, an arm of the World Health Organization, classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans.”

“We had a big push not to use Round-up, and so we made a decision five years ago not to use it or glyphosate anymore in the vineyards we farm,” Roser said.

Roser said 30% of the 600 acres he farms are certified organic, and 80% are herbicide-free.

“More and more, winemakers are requesting that there’s no more Round-up usage. So in 10 years time, it’s likely there won’t be any use of it in Sonoma County.”

The blur of harvest

With a rainy spring and cool weather delaying the grape harvest, winegrowers like Roser expect October to be a frantic sprint. They’ll be racing to bring in their fruit before the November rains arrive.

With the peak of harvest just days away, Roser is about to immerse himself in it. He expects to work seven days a week with four to five hours of intermittent sleep a night.

“There’s an old saying,” Roser said with a laugh, “the best two days of harvest are the first and the last. Everything in between is a blur.”

You can reach Wine Writer Peg Melnik at 707-521-5310 or peg.melnik@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @pegmelnik.