An ideal grape growing season would be 7 months long with a frost-free spring for the tender new shoots emerging. A long, mild summer with warm days and cool nights for measured grape maturity, a balance between fruit sugars and acidity. Harvest at the end of September would be rain free with warm, sunny days and cool nights.
However, hot, dry summers have shortened the grape growing seasons by weeks for several years now. And unseasonable storms brought on by climate change shorten the growing season to the detriment of the wine industry.
Typically, higher, cooler elevations were picked in October, now picking is in September and moving into August. The wine growing season is changing.
Devastating spring frosts, isolated hailstorms and prolonged heatwaves have been presenting more of a challenge. Wine producers around the world debate and plan for the impact of extreme weather – more hardy rootstock and better placement of varietals. Some even plant multiple clones in one vineyard. Some clones may be heat resistant and some may be mildew resistant.
France and Italy are the top wine producing nations in the world often trading first place for tonnage harvested. But for both countries the 2017 grape harvest has been greatly affected by weather extremes. The spring frosts in Bordeaux, Loire and Alsace reduced the crop size. Then August hailstorms further decimated what survived the frosts. This year’s harvest was reduced to the size of the 1945 harvest.
Bitter cold struck the right bank of Bordeaux twice within a week in April, ravaging the fragile shoots and buds that had emerged prematurely during the mild temperatures in March. To combat the frost, Bordeaux winemakers set fires in oil drums, and then positioned them carefully between the rows of budding grapevines. Giant fans were also deployed to battle the cold to move the cold damp air.
In Italy, several regions also experienced frost and then a heatwave nicknamed Lucifer, left grapes vulnerable to drought. The brutal summer sun shut down the vines and the crop size was reduced drastically. Vineyards with mature vines that had deep roots were able to tap water with roots that had grown over the years deep into the ground. Younger more shallow roots could not survive as well under these climatic conditions.
California is the third largest wine producing region in the world. That industry also has felt the heat with drought and heatwaves. And then the heartbreaking, devastating wildfires hit Sonoma, Napa and Mendocino wine country during harvest.
In 2008, California wildfires burned 1.3 million acres and the state experienced record levels of air pollution. That year, the wildfires left many California vineyards with smoke-tainted grapes.
Harvest was in full swing when the devastating fires broke out in Napa, Mendocino and Sonoma last Sunday. While 90 percent of the wine grapes have been harvested, there were still grapes in the vineyards to be picked.
With most of the harvest fermenting away, a wildfire roaring close by, closed roads, electricity and cellular service down, winemaking in California faces new challenges. Without access or electricity, fermentation is running rampant. But at least some still have wine fermenting and a building to do it in.
Wineries and vineyards have burned as a result of the fires, including Nicholson Ranch in Sonoma and Frey Vineyards, a pioneer in organic and biodynamic wines, in Mendocino County.
Among other damaged wineries, White Rock Vineyards, established as a winery at the foot of the Stag’s Leap in 1871, burned to the ground; Signorello Estate, a family-owned winery along the Silverado Trail, was also burned to the ground, Santa Rosa winery Paradise Ridge is an ashen pile of rubble on a blackened hillside.
Some wineries were more fortunate, in Santa Rosa, Ancient Oak Cellars reported a house and two outbuildings were destroyed but fortunately the majority of the bottled wines and all of its wine in barrels were safe in other locations.
Many wineries are still standing but have sustained landscaping damage. Kenwood Vineyards, BR Cohn, and Chateau St. Jean reported fires damaging the grounds surrounding the wineries. With power out, the wineries are finding it difficult to take care of the wines fermenting away in stainless steel. With many vineyards on the fire line, assessing crop and vineyards damage is still an unknown.
At least 35,000 acres in Sonoma and 12,000 acres in the Atlas Peak fire has burned, there are no reports yet about the number of vineyard acres that may have burned. In addition, time will tell if smoke taint will be an issue.
Gallo, who owns the famous Stagecoach Vineyard off of Soda Canyon Road in Napa Valley, has not been able to get updates on the vineyard’s status. Stagecoach Vineyard Cabernet is highly prized by dozens of top Napa wineries.
When the fires broke out, the 2017 grape harvest had been in full swing, somewhat ahead of schedule. Winemakers were rushing to pick during a September heat wave since the sugar levels had spiked and grapes ripened almost overnight.
Now questions remain about the extent of damage the fires will have on California’s wine regions. It appears Cabernet, which was not quite ripe yet, will be in very short supply. As will Pinot Noir in the Mendocino region, which hadn’t been harvested before the wildfires.
Big and small, top drawer and everyday wines, this is a devastating loss to the area’s residents and businesses.
In our own backyard, a hot summer and the ever present wildfires may have influenced the flavor of the 2017 harvest in ways that we wish it hadn’t. But it seems likely that Washington wines will be in high demand considering the challenges in France, Italy and California.
Washington, second behind California in wine production, has almost 900 wineries that contribute approximately $2.1 billion to the state economy. Last year, 350 growers harvested a record 270,000 tons of grapes and produced 17.5 million cases of wine.
Even with the spikes in temperatures and the threat of wildfire damage, Washington’s harvest began in late August, a bit later than the previous two years.
Production for 2017 is estimated to be less than 2016. For instance, at the sixth week mark, about 40% of the Washington grape harvest is in. Data from the Washington Wine Report regarding tons harvested by Oct. 2nd:
2015 – 540,000 tons (82%
complete)
2016 – 419,000 tons (67% complete)
2017 – 211,000 tons (~40% complete)
The waiting game in the vineyards may make harvest a nail biter, but the purple hands at the wineries gives us hope for the coming vintages.
