Mid-harvest storm threatens and sends a call to action

 

A tropical storm that hit in Asia over a week ago, is heavily impacting winegrowers on the West Coast of the US.

 

You say, “What?” It seems like it was only a few weeks ago that we were talking about the first beautiful fruits of an almost perfect winegrowing season – and so it was – on August 25, this column referred to “getting ready for harvest and the crush.”

 

Now, with the first of the seasonal storms preparing to slam into California’s Central Coast, winegrowers and winemakers are scrambling to protect their fruit. It seems that this could be a big, fruit damaging storm – the remnants of Melora, a weakened western Pacific storm – turned toward the east. This fading storm front is teaming up with an unusual weather pattern to build what could be a sizeable storm headed for a direct hit on the central coast, and thousands of acres of wine grapes that are yet to be harvested.

 

 

Many winegrowers see this as a call to action. Up here in the Santa Cruz Mountains, in areas such as in Glenwood, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay vineyards are being harvested as quickly as the crews can get to the fruit-laden vines, to save the fruit from potentially damaging wet weather. Vineyard owner Val Rebhahn, his family, and a crew of workers, picked fruit late last week, and all weekend. “Luckily conditions are cooler up here than they’ve been in the past few weeks. That means we stay cool while we’re picking, and so does the fruit. Heat can ‘cook’ the fruit, and can cause the fermentation process to begin in the transport bins on the way to the winery. So, if there’s a bright spot, the cool weather is a good thing! The alternative, leaving the fruit on the vine, could mean the potential onset of rot, or mildew.”

 

 

Luckily for Ed Muns and Mary Lindsay, their already harvested Santa Cruz Mountains Muns Vineyards Pinot Noir “is gorgeous!” Mary reports, “We have harvested 37 tons from our 12 acres of Pinot Noir over five days in mid-September.” Their Syrah, at last report, was still to be picked. We’ll report on that later in the week.

 

Ed and Mary (and many other winegrowers) are sure to be happy to have their fruit harvested prior to this first big storm of the season. Muns Vineyard is one of the highest in the Santa Cruz Mountains appellation, where this year they enjoyed timely winter and spring rains, with the fruit soaking in the nutrients, and lapping up the heat from the plentiful summer sun.

 

 

All-in-all, it’s shaping up to be a “very good year.” There are a lot of folks with “all fingers crossed.”