The COVID-19 pandemic, lack of rain, persistent oversupply concerns and a record-setting wildfire season conspired to wallop California winegrape production.
The 2020 California grape crush came in at just over 3.5 million tons, down 14% from 4.1 million tons in 2019, according to a preliminary report released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Red-wine grapes made up the largest share, with about 1.8 million tons, and white-wine varietals accounted for nearly 1.6 million tons. Table grapes and raisin grapes accounted for the remainder.
Jeff Bitter, president of Allied Grape Growers, said the tally “really does affirm what our position has been and what we’ve been saying for the last few months about last year’s crop and the impact that would have—and has had—on the market for grapes throughout the winter.”
Prices paid per ton also dropped, according to the report. The price for all varieties averaged $674.72 per ton, down nearly 17% from 2019. Red-wine grapes sold for, on average, $791.33 per ton, down more than 22%, while white-wine grapes declined 6% to $554.74 per ton.
Wine grapes rank at No. 2 among Yolo County’s Top 20 commodities, bringing in more than $108 million a year.
Bitter said the statewide average price represented “the reality that there was a lot of grapes left to hang on the vine last year on the coast.”
“Anything that got crushed gets reported,” he said. “What didn’t get crushed, by and large, in the state was coastal grapes. That’s where we saw grapes that got left to hang on the vine and did not get crushed, and therefore did not get reported.”
Dave Rosenthal, a Lake County grape grower and a member of the California Farm Bureau Board of Directors, attributed the price drop to smoke concerns arising from California’s 2020 wildfires and to “hangover from the big crop a couple of years ago”; in 2018, the grape crush totaled 4.5 million tons.
“The industry has been oversupplied for a couple of years, and so prices had been falling somewhat already,” he said. “Wineries weren’t renewing contracts because they didn’t need extra inventory.”
Although Lake and Mendocino counties didn’t suffer the smoke impacts of regions to the south, Rosenthal said the area did have vineyards “that weren’t picked or the contracts were canceled.”
“Quite a few of them got picked at a lower price,” he said.
A short yield also helped reduce the 2020 crush. So what happened?
“Mother Nature,” Rosenthal said. “There’s a lot of studies and a lot of work done on what can contribute to a large crop and what can contribute to a small crop. Often, it’s what the weather is like the previous spring, when the next year’s buds are being formed.”
In the case of 2020, he noted, low rainfall played a part.
Bitter said though he can’t pinpoint anything in particular as being behind short yields, initial bunch counts for 2020 were lighter than 2019, especially for white grapes.
“A lot of times, your crop size has more to do with the weather during fruit bud differentiation the prior year than it actually does any particular weather patterns during the growing season,” he said.
As for 2021, “who knows?” Rosenthal said.
“I don’t know that anybody really knows what’s going to happen with grape contracts for next year,” he said. “We also still don’t know how the whole COVID thing is going to sort out. And when are we going to get restaurants open again?”
Restaurants, tasting rooms and other sources of “on premise” wine sales have suffered during the pandemic, while “off premise” sales at grocery stores and other retail outlets have seen a boost.
The Link LonkMarch 05, 2021 at 12:52AM
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Crush figures illustrate tough year for grapes - Woodland Daily Democrat
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