Grape harvest begins

Vineyard near Glen Ellen brings in season's first pinot noir

GLEN ELLEN — Kicking off the annual North Coast grape harvest, a dozen workers plunged into a dark Sonoma Valley vineyard before dawn Monday and emerged with a surprising find — a far larger than expected crop.

Hunter Farms vineyard manager Chris Bowen removes leaves from the picked grapes near Glen Ellen, Ca., August 10, 2009.

If the unexpectedly generous yields at Hunter Vineyards are matched at other vineyards, the size of the 2009 crop could further pressure grape prices and depress growers who have yet to sell their fruit.

The size of the crop at the small pinot noir vineyard south of Glen Ellen — 40 percent larger than last year — surprised vineyard manager Chris Bowen.

“I thought it was going to be a real easy day today, and it turned out to be a much bigger day than I anticipated,” Bowen said.

The harvest at Hunter Vineyards is getting underway nine days later than last year, the result of a cooler than average growing season. The perfect ripening weather has optimism high for a great vintage. But it’s the quantity, more than the quality, that has Wine Country abuzz this year.

By noon, workers had filled 65 bins with the plump clusters of pinot noir grapes, compared to last year’s yield of 51 bins, Bowen said.

But the real surprise came after the grapes were delivered to Gloria Ferrer winery in Sonoma, where they’ll be made into sparkling wine. Instead of the 15.3 tons delivered last year, the same 5.5-acre vineyard produced 21.5 tons, a stunning 40 percent increase, Bowen said.

“If that bodes anything for other people who do not have contracts, it does not bode well,” Bowen said.

The early harvest numbers from Hunter Vineyards are being closely watched this year because the grape market is in such a precarious state. After hitting record prices last year, the recession has sent grape prices sliding 30 percent or more this year.

Slow sales of wines over $20 have caused inventories to back up at most North Coast wineries, making them hesitant to buy any more grapes than they absolutely have to. The result is anxious growers with fruit ripening on the vine and few wineries lining up to buy the grapes.

Bowen and others were quick to warn against extrapolating his results to the entire industry. It’s not surprising that yields are up because they were down about 15 percent last year, Bowen said. In addition, some of the vines picked Monday are producing more fruit because they’re young and continue to mature, Bowen said.

Nick Frey, president of the Sonoma County Winegrape Commission, said he expects an average crop of around 200,000 tons for Sonoma County. That would be up 18 percent from last year’s anemic crop of 169,000 tons, but well short of the 216,000 ton bumper crop that walloped the industry in 2005.

It is very unlikely the entire $400 million crop comes in anything near the increase Hunter Vineyards saw Monday, Frey said.

“I don’t think that’ll hold up. I don’t see it out there,” Frey said.

Vineyard yields vary dramatically from location to location, and one vineyard’s results with one varietal is far too little information on which to estimate anything, Frey said.

Spring weather patterns when the vines are blooming can vary by day, causing an early blooming variety like pinot noir to “set” perfectly, only to give later blooming varieties trouble, Frey said. There are cases of some significant “shatter,” or incomplete setting of fruit, among reds like merlot, Frey said.

But vineyard workers at Hunter Vineyards saw nothing Monday but tight, full grape clusters. Paid by the ton, the larger crop meant the crew of 12 workers and one tractor driver knew they’d be making a few extra dollars before the day was out.

Despite the grueling pace and heavy bins, workers’ spirits seemed high as they whooped and hollered up and down the vine rows in the moonlight. They teased and encouraged one another as the teams of three playfully competed with one another.

Cervando Castillo, 25, showed off his talents as one of the fastest pickers in the bunch.

With an LED headlamp illuminating the vines before him, Castillo attacked the grape clusters with the ferocity of a prize fighter and skill of a surgeon. As a cascade of clean fruit fell into the bin at his feet, Castillo found time to tease his younger brother Rosendo, 24, for getting as many leaves as grapes in his bin, to hearty laughter.

As the men dumped their small bins into larger ones towed behind a tractor, driver Rudi Rodriguez, 71, spread the fruit out, removed stray leaves, and encouraged the crew to work quickly but safely.

“These guys are very experienced workers, very fast,” Rodriguez said.

Racing through the vineyards in the dark with hooked knives is treacherous business, and some didn’t come away unscathed. Ducking beneath a row of vines, Castillo caught his shirt on a sharp wire, gouging a bloody line across his back.

Sam Pureco, 39, also knows first hand just how rough picking can be on workers’ bodies. Back in the 1990s, he lifted a heavy bin — larger than the ones they now use — and tweaked his back, injuring a disk, he said. He has since made a full recovery.

Picking pinot noir is particularly challenging, he said, because the clusters are smaller, and require more dexterity to remove them cleanly from tangle of canes that make up the canopy of the vine.

“It’s hard work when the bunches are little,” Pureco said, noting that chardonnay bunches are often twice the size.

Once the sun peeked over the Mayacmas mountains and hit the valley floor, the temperatures started rising from the 60s toward their daily high near 90. Behind schedule because of the crop size, everyone raced to get the fruit to the winery.

“These guys are definitely going to feel sore tomorrow,” Bowen said.