Yolo's Wild Year

 

Clarksburg, Calif. -- West of Napa, south of Sacramento and north of Solano counties, Yolo County is still building its identity as a player in the grape and wine industry. In 2007, though, winegrapes grew to become Yolo's third most lucrative crop, according to the county's 2007 crop report. A total of almost 12,000 acres of winegrape vineyards were harvested, reaping a hefty $46.5 million in sales.

So a season that started with a rare bout of killing frost, continued with a drought that kept rivers shallow and water tables low, a couple of ill-timed heat spikes and a pall of wildfire smoke that blocked sunlight during much of the summer was nothing to take lightly. When frost caused an estimated $7 million in damages to winegrape vineyards in April, county officials asked the USDA to declare Yolo an "agricultural disaster area," allowing affected farmers to apply for low-interest loans as needed for rebuilding. (Last week, Yolo again applied for a disaster declaration, this time to benefit non-irrigated grazing lands.)

Surprisingly, only the April frost event seemed to have much documented impact on area growers. Wines & Vines spoke with seven in southern Yolo's Clarksburg AVA to learn how the area is faring, now that harvest has begun. Judy Serpa at Dantone Vineyards lamented the loss of more than half of her prized Pinot Noir crop, which was harvested last week, destined for John Carvalho's Sugar Mill winery in downtown Clarksburg. "Normally, we bring in 33 tons; this year, we were shocked to bring in only 16," she said.

Serpa and her husband Daniel have farmed 200 acres in Clarksburg since 1982. Most of their crop, which normally exceeds 1,200 tons, is under contract to E. & J. Gallo and Sutter Home wineries. Alameda's Rosenblum Cellars, recently acquired by Diageo Chateau & Estate Wines, this year received 66-70 tons of Dantone Sauvignon Blanc, which was harvested beginning Aug. 18.

Ken Wilson at 800-acre Wilson Farms in Clarksburg estimated his overall crop is down "a good 15% across the board." Like the Serpas, his harvest began on Aug. 18, but with Pinot Noir. "Everything's going to be light," he predicted.

REGION: CALIFORNIA

View Larger Map Approximate Clarksburg AVA Boundary

He recalled a harrowing season: "Heat spikes during bloom time, which we mitigated as much as we could. Howling north winds that really beat the vines. The shoot tips got all beaten up. We got a lot of second crop on some of the vineyards, mostly due to the freeze, some due to the winds. I thought maybe we would save something on labor this year, but you've got to go through and pull it off," he said.

Like most of the other growers we spoke with, Wilson, whose family's been growing grapes in the area since 1971, uses mostly mechanical harvesting, although he did do some hand harvesting for this, his first vintage of Pinot Noir. He anticipated that his harvest will be completed early, before the end of September. "We've hired some custom harvesting outfits to give us a hand," since he expects the season to be compressed. Most of his fruit is contracted to Dry Creek Vineyards in Sonoma County.

Tony Serpa at D & T Vineyard reported that he's just finished harvesting his Sauvignon Blanc, and is now moving on to Chardonnay. "It's about the normal time," he said. "The tonnage is probably a little lower. In certain fields we did have some frost losses. In one field, the Chardonnay will be down about 60%." The grapes from his 165 acres are all under contract, the majority to Gallo. "We've been growing grapes since '84," he noted. "That frost was not traditional."

Chardonnay seemed to have been most affected by the frost. James Reamer at Reamer Farms has already harvested all of this year's Chardonnay for sparkling wine programs, and yield was down 50%. Pinot Gris, also already in, was down about one-third. Reamer's still waiting for his Chardonnay for still wines, Chenin Blanc and Sémillon. He expects that the Chenin Blanc, under contract with Beringer, will come in last, around Oct. 1.

He's been growing grapes on the 450-acre vineyard since 1978, and was able to recall only a single other year--2001--in which he suffered frost damage. With frost so rare, neither Reamer nor the other growers we spoke with had any kind of protective equipment on hand. "We don't get frost often enough that it's worth the investment," he explained.

Although Reamer had the catastrophic-level crop insurance (CAT) available to winegrape growers, he did not lose a vine, And does not expect to cash in on the low-cost insurance, which pays off only in seasons wh en yields are less than 50% per variety of the previous harvest. Although did lose 50% of his sparkling Chardonnay grapes, his total Chardonnay crop will be more than half of last year's.

William Correa of Foggy Hollow Vineyards reported a similar predicament. He lost some, but not sufficient of this year's crop to claim CAT benefits. A grapegrower since 1995 whose family has farmed the area for 125 years, Correa said he'd lost perhaps half of his 45 acres of Sauvignon Blanc, contracted to Gallo. He's starting to harvest his 35 acres of Chardonnay soon, and expects a reduction of about 30%.

Gary Merwin at D & G Merwin said he was one of the lucky ones this year. "For me, it's going pretty well." Merwin reported no frost losses, but noted that he had been so worried about the drought year, he had already begun irrigating heavily, which he believes provided protection for his vines when the frost hit his 210-acre vineyard. He sells his Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc and Sémillon grapes to Gallo, Chateau St. Jean, Don Sebastiani and Bogle Winery, a Clarksburg neighbor. He's still 1 or 2°Brix shy of what his winery clients are looking for, and said that the current hot spell (temperatures are in the triple digits this week) is perhaps stalling the ripening.

For his part, Merwin's client Warren Bogle, vineyard manager at Bogle Winery, reported that he had lost about half the crop from 200 acres of Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.

Merwin wondered, too, about the smoke, which reduced sunlight for weeks during the California wildfires. "It's been a year of extremes," he said. "We haven't had a lot of average weather. First it was colder, now this is the second hot spell. Everybody in Clarksburg has noticed how dry it is. The (Sacramento) river never came up. We never got high river levels at all."

Dr. Janet Broome, a specialist in plant pathology and sustainable agriculture for the University of California, Davis, extension in Yolo and Sacramento counties, said the season was so dry that she and colleagues who have been doing trials for downy mildew in a Sacramento County vineyard actually had to inoculate their test vineyard with the mildew. She wondered, too, if the smoke blanket affected this year's crop. "It certainly could have, because of reduced sunlight," she conjectured.

"It's been all over the map," she said. "That's a good description." Although she is not a viticultural specialist, she said she'd heard of losses in Yolo. "We encourage people to report their losses," she said. Learn more about Yolo County and the Clarksburg AVA at clarksburgwinegrowers.com.