July 2024

WEATHER

Throughout California in most growing areas, we have been experiencing three weeks of over 100 degrees F temperatures with just a couple of days of respite. For this early in the season it is a rarity. In the past we had seen these high temperature for a few days in August and in September. There was that horrible heat pattern in September 2022 when a lot of grapes dried up on the vine. Tomorrow the weather will eventually cool down to the 90’s for about a week. After that looks like another heat wave may occur. We took advantage of those couple of days of respite to look at our growers’ vineyards. There was not any damage and in general everything looked good. The most significant result from this heat wave is the specter of wildfires.

TIMING

Last year at this time we were saying that the crop will be two to three weeks later than last year. We proved to be right with a large percentage of grapes never reaching their contracted sugar and never picked. At this time, we are saying that the crop will be two to three weeks earlier than last year. Are we saying that we are approaching a normal season, whatever that is? The answer is yes. We may even be earlier. We have not taken any sugars yet. Probably around the first week in August we will take our first sugars. Even with all this heat verasian (or color change) is progressing quite normally.

MARKETING

Over the last year we have read so many explanations why there a drop in general domestic wine sales. It is above our sophistication to truly come up with any absolute answer. It is probably a combination of many factors including imports, seltzer drinks, marijuana to health issues due idiotic Government reports that any alcohol is bad for you. (In some San Francisco Hospitals they used to give some patients a glass of wine daily in the 1950’s and 60’s). What we do know is that for almost everybody sales started to fall off from pandemia highs in the second half of 2022. That drop off has continued through 2023. The drop in sales is more dramatic from on the shelf sales than winery on-site sales. This is encouraging for our business scenario. Until the large inventories of wine disappear worldwide and California acreage is significantly reduced, the glut will continue.

CROP SIZE

This heat caused berry size and bunch size to be significantly smaller than last year. The general talk is that the 2024 crush has been reduced by 15% because of this heat. Crops look normal for Zinfandel and newer plantings of Cabernet Sauvignon. Older Cabernet Sauvignon Vineyards show some shatter and smaller bunches. White grapes are generally light with again bunches and berries being small from their original set and bloom.

June 2024

CROP MARKETING

Marketing conditions are poor in the California grape industry. Wineries are not renewing any contracts. Wine and general alcohol sales are down. We are hearing of some data that things may be changing, but we can’t believe any change in marketing conditions will affect this year’s crop. White grapes are showing some interest but generally all black grapes are in poor demand. In driving around the vineyards, we see a lot of FOR SALES signs. There have been a lot of marginal vineyards pulled out and there are some vineyards that have not been pruned. There has been mentioned that another 50,000 acres across the State need to be removed to bring demand and production in unison. That is frightening. It is encouraging to hear from our customers that they are trending towards increasing their orders from last year. Quite a few pulled back from their previous year’s orders with all the bad news hitting the industry. We hope this trend will continue and it is great to hear that the wine business across the country is going much better than in California.

CROP TIMING

We have had a cool May and early June. Nothing as the cold spring of last year. Even with the cool spring, crops of other fruits seem to be maturing in their historic time frame. Weather currently reflects our normal weather patterns; several days of very hot days followed by a cooling trend. We believe the grape crop will mature more towards its normal timing than the extremely late 2023 season. Just noticed on the weather forecast next week will be in the hundreds. That is typical. What is not typical, Tuesday's temperature is predicted to reach over 110 F. That will be too high, and some burn may occur. When we go around vineyards around the 4th of July, we assess the timing of the crop by seeing if any veraison is occurring in the O.V. Zinfandels. There was none as of yesterday. What we saw was a berry in two different Sangiovese vineyards that were having a slight change in color. Never saw that before. Zinfandel was always the first.

CROP SIZE

After visiting quite a few vineyards, we have concluded that the crop will be smaller than the average California crop. The bunch count doesn’t appear too low, but the berry size will be much smaller than last year. With the smaller berry size, bunches are looser. They are not quite as large as in past years and there appears to be some significant shatter in some varieties and vineyards. A lot of white varieties have very small bunches especially Pinot Grigio. Another factor that I am certain will affect the crop’s total crush numbers is the fact that there is a lot of mildew showing up in vineyards. I have visited our past growers’ vineyards, and they are not showing any mildew issues, but we have seen and heard of some vineyards with issues. That’s all these wineries may need to get out of their contracts.

April 2024

WINE AND ALCOHOL SALES KEEP DROPPING, BUT

After a great weekend of college basketball, we finally found ourselves motivated to write a current newsletter. We haven’t been able to get motivated because there is hardly anything happening in the entire worldwide grape industry but continuing doom and gloom. Worldwide wine & alcohol sales have dropped and continue to drop, and nobody seems to have an answer. This last month, however, we have heard from some of our customers that in January and February their sales were poor, but March turned out pretty good. There was also a speech from the president of one of the largest wineries in California, that by this fall sales could start to increase.

2024 SEASON

The imbalance of production to consumer demand in California is resulting in a call for reducing wine grape acreage by up to 50,000 acres. This goes for almost all black varieties. White grapes seem to be showing a little more demand. The only contract I have heard signed this year is with a grower with 90% white grapes and 10% black grapes. Prices for that contract will not be discussed till a later date. There are quite a few growers whose contracts were up in 2023 and had their wineries tell them they would not take their grapes in 2024. A lot of these growers have not pruned their vineyards. We have included several pictures of this phenomenon in this newsletter. We have checked with the growers that have been the backbone of our shipments over the years. They have all pruned and are farming to the high standards of past years. There are so many growers approaching us that they have grapes available. There is not much encouragement we can offer them. We anticipate prices to remain about the same as last year with the only increases due to overhead of insurance and labor costs. For the orders to distributors and home winemakers there will be an increase of $1.00 /box for shipment less than a pallet of a specific variety. The weather is a little cooler than normal, but we are going to see some temperatures in the 80s next week. There was ample rain fall this winter so irrigation issues will not be an issue.

INTERNALLY THINGS ARE CHANGING

Last year Matt and I attended the very successful Eastern Winery show in Lancaster, PA. Matt Nowak and Kevin Pitto, a third-generation grower and broker, represented F. Colavita & Son at the recent Texas convention. We thank all our southern customers for their cordiality and acceptance of our new associates. It was a wonderful experience for all concerned. Years ago, I used to attend sometimes 5 or 6 conferences and winery shows all over the country. As communications have changed with the internet, there are just a couple of industry conventions that are promoted. Please inform us of any upcoming industry conventions or exposition in your State. We would like to attend.

A VINTAGE YEAR

Last year was a very difficult year with maturity running about 3 weeks later than normal. Even though we missed the early shipments for the home winemaker, we are now so happy that we disciplined ourselves to harvest grapes at appropriate maturity. We had seen a lot of grapes packed and shipped with sugars of not more than 17 or 18 sugars. Eventually 2023 wines that were picked at their right sugars will make wines with great flavors and color. The 2023 harvest is turning out to be one of the best vintages for the State.

BEST OF THE BEST

At the 2024 North Coast Challenge this year an interesting blend won the “Best of the Best” award. The blend is 47% Sangiovese, 31% Merlot, 22% Montepulciano. We are very intrigued by this blend and may try to duplicate it in the future. We are probably the best source of these varieties to ship them out of California.

November 2023

It has been less than a week since we loaded out our last shipment. It has taken a few days for us to initially assess the very exhausting, frustrating, but yet rewarding season. We had alerted all our customers that patience, patience, and more patience was going to be the prevailing criteria for the 2023 season. We never could have realized the total truth of that statement.

TIMING OUT THE WINDOW

We all knew that it was going to be a later than normal season. The starting harvest for almost everybody was initially two weeks later and in some instances three weeks later than normal. One assumed that maturity would progress accordingly. Not true!! Most varieties, both white and black got stuck at anywhere between 19 to 21 sugar and would not move any higher. The generally cool weather, especially at night, and good fruit set probably explains some of this slow maturity process, but it still doesn't explain why a lot of grapes NEVER ever reached proper sugar levels of 24+. This was all over California. We were in Paso Robles last weekend and they were still waiting for some grapes to reach proper maturity.

A REWARDING SEASON

During the end of the 2022 and throughout the 2023 season, there had been a dramatic drop in case good sales out of California. This development reflected with a lot of wineries not renewing any grape contracts and leaving a lot of growers with no home. It has been rewarding for us to find homes for almost all of our past growers. It also has been rewarding for us to supply our distributors and wineries with mature grapes. Distributors have often thanked us for their grapes compared to what their competition was trying to sell. We have seen some of our competitors grapes picked with less than 19 sugar. With the later harvest for our winery customers and a lot of home-made wine clubs throughout the country constantly expressed their appreciation for the quality of the grapes they received even to this day. Much appreciated.

WHERE WAS MATT NOWAK?

As you know we brought Matt Nowak on board this year to assure that there will be a future for the company and help replace Alison’s position within the organization. His primary task was to become familiar with our customers with communications and coordination. This did not occur. Maturity considerations dictated that he worked mainly with our field crews and growers. If not for his assets with locating some new growers who had respectably mature fruit and his close relationship with our other associate Kevin Pitto, we would not have had sufficient volume to supply a lot of our distributors in September. Experience gathered this year will be indispensable for the future.

August 2023

We are the largest and oldest family-owned shipper of California Wine Grapes to Commercial Wineries and to home wine makers in the entire Country. We deal through distributors and with customers directly. We personally handle the selection of vineyards throughout Northern California, hire mostly our own hand harvesting crews, store and ship from our own cold storage facilities. We also ship juice and finished wines. Last week we visited our source for Coastal Grapes. It is located 20 miles from the Pacific Ocean as the eagle flies. Even though we have been doing business with the owners for many years, it was the first time we visited the vineyard. We were so impressed with the size, location, uniformity, unique trellising system and most of all the dedication to the highest standard of viticulture. We now ship some of their Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Pinot Grigio to mostly wineries with amazing success. Their grapes mature several weeks later than our local grapes. It is very difficult at that time of year to ship to home winemakers except for early maturing grapes such as Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Grigio.

Matt and Mike at our Coastal Grower's Vineyard

PATIENCE, PATIENCE, AND EVEN MORE PATIENCE

It is around August 1 and there is only a small amount of veraison or color change in some of the early varieties and none in the later varieties. This puts us about three weeks later than normal in our harvesting plans. It will take another two weeks to be able to take some sugar readings and at least another 4 weeks for proper maturity. This lateness was due to the very wet, (a blessing) and very cool weather this spring. What we can gather all districts appear to have the same tardiness. The industry must have discipline to not pick immature grapes for the home winemaker. I am sure this will happen with some people. As an alternative the makers of home-made wine must be patient and delay their purchases to the later part of September or October. This is truly one of the latest projected harvests we have seen in our 55 years of business. For our winery customers we will advise everyone consistently as to the projected harvest dates. Usually, our winery customers want shipments later, so I don’t see a conflict at all. Also, there are some growers who are thinning their grapes to produce a lighter crop and therefore an earlier maturing crop. Of course, with a later harvest, we do have to worry that mother nature may play a factor, but that fear is always with us every year, just more so this year.

GOOD REWARDS

If everyone has Patience and more Patience, this can be very rewarding for all our customers. With the recent decline of case good sales of wine out of California, especially from the San Joaquin Valley, winery demand from these areas is almost nonexistent for uncontracted grapes. Grapes from the high-end appellations are not seeing this glut. Their prices seem to be stable. Some wineries in the valley do not want to harvest even the grapes they have contracted. The lawyers will be busy! With this very low demand prices will be substantially less for everyone. It will be an opportunity for all to make wines at prices not seen for a few years.

ACHEIVMENTS FROM OUR CUSTOMERS

On a recent vacation to Maine, we visited a winery that bought grapes from us. We discovered that their 2015 Pinot Noir from our supplier of Coastal wine grapes won an outstanding amount of gold medals, one was even from Paris. There was even a double gold medal. Their 2019 Teroldego from one of our local growers is starting to win awards. Another winery in Pennsylvania won three medals form the American Wine Society. Please report to us when your wines receive recognition. It gives a sense of accomplishment and pride.

GOOD ADVICE

There is a lot of news concerning the recent Dietary Guidelines issued from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Resources. They state that women are advised to drink ONE glass of wine or less and men two glasses or less daily. In an interesting Article in the recent Wall Street Journal On Wine by Lettie Teague, she finally asked the advise of her doctor in a checkup. He stated, “You can drink up to half a bottle of wine a day and be fine.”

JUNE NEWSLETTER

We hope everyone is having a wonderful summer.  We wanted to reach out and give everyone a quick up date.

THE EFFECTS OF WEATHER

Here we are on the first day of summer and we probably will not reach 80 degrees this afternoon.  Today reflects the weather we have been experiencing all during the spring.  It has been mild with just a handful of days ever reaching 90 degrees F. The 10-day forecast has just three days reaching over 90s F towards the end of the cycle.  Beautiful weather to enjoy but historically very cool for California agriculture.

With our very wet Winter and early Spring not only drought conditions disappeared very quickly, but grape vines may also be producing a potential heavy crop.  The last few years have reinforced the adage that dry winters generally produce lighter crops and wet winters produce heavier crops.  What makes this even more a potentially heavy crop is our current mild weather.  Both bunches and berries keep growing.  On some varieties the bunches are the biggest I have ever seen.  

With cool weather and a big crop, we may experience a very late maturity for our grapes.  The cherry crop was large and anywhere two to three weeks later than normal.  We had the hope early that the grapes would start catching up but just the opposite occurred.  Naturally the weather in the next few months will determine the exact timing of the crop, but it will not be early.  The timing of veraison (color change) for an early variety like Zinfandel in July will give us an ideal about maturity.  A lot of later areas are very concerned about whether their maturity will beat the fall rains.

To ensure proper maturity and quality grapes we may be recommending the thinning of grapes.  We like this to be done after the color changes so the lighter and weaker bunches can be removed.  In past years, we have also seen thinning be done very close to maturity.  Not only does it remove weak bunches, but it invigorates the vines so that one can see dramatic sugar and color gains within a few days.  At this time, we see that thinning may be essential for quality grapes.

MARKET CONDITIONS

Market conditions are poor. Like many industries there is an unknown factor that can’t be determined that concerns the future of the overall economy. Will there be a recession or just a slowdown or are we in one now? The wine industry is playing it very cautiously. Activity for non-contracted grapes is very limited, if existing at all. Of course, this will may change as we get closer to harvest.  For some of the biggest wineries, there has been a decrease in overall case wine sales, and this scares the big wineries.

Initial materials cost seems about the same as last year and freight seems to be reasonable.  Labor costs should not be higher this year, but there were some costs last year that were not anticipated. The major costs were power and insurance costs in our cold storage operations.  If wineries do not change their purchasing outlook, it means there will be lower purchase price for most varieties that we can pass on to our buyers     It will be a great opportunity to make wine for your winery or at home at prices not seen for a few years!!!

If you have aby questions or concerns about the upcoming season, please contact us.

MARCH NEWSLETTER

SOME ENCOURAGING NEWS:

With all the question marks about the general economy and with a slight decrease in general wine sales there is a general pale over the industry.  But we are encouraged by a couple of articles and our own observation.

From the Wine Business Monthly the United States is now home to 11,691 wineries.  This is nearly 400 more than in 2021 and 1,215 more than in 2020. Since 2019, the number of U.S. wineries has grown at a rate of 4 percent, which matches the growth rate since 2010. Outside of California, Origan and Washington there are 4904 wineries.  “The sustained growth of wineries, through the pandemic and associated economic turmoil, is encouraging, especially when compared to the decline seen in the restaurant industry and other on-premise and retail outlets over the same period.”

From the IWSR, the leading source of data and analysis on beverage alcohol marker, shows there were 4 million more wine drinkers consuming wine on a weekly basis in 2022 than in 2018, a strong rebound from the Covid-era low point in 2021. “Since the pandemic, however, there’s been a bounce-back in overall wine participation rates in the US: the number of regular wine drinkers (RWD) grew by 14 million between 2021 and 2022. This momentum is mainly coming from those under the age of 40, and the wine industry is seeing a growing influence not just of the most engaged consumers (aged 25-54)”

From our own observation at the Unified Wine & Grape Symposium in Sacramento in January as an observer at the recent Texas Annual Conference as an Exhibitor there was a very positive attitude about the future. The attendance in Sacramento exceeded anything I had ever experienced.  In Texas wineries were very bullish about their industry regardless of the growing problems experience the last couple of years.  We are playing a part to help some of these wineries fill their supply gap.

WE ARE CHANGING:

As some of you may already know my daughter Alison Colavita will be no longer working with F. Colavita & Son.  She received a wonderful carrier opportunity that she couldn’t turn down.  

Starting in 2020 we started working with a grower that had fantastic history in the wine grape industry.  He was head of field operations for a large wine grape shipping company.  His father was also involved in the industry as fieldman and currently his father is still active as a grape broker for wineries.    On top of all that he is an excellent grower specializing in Italian Varieties mainly located in the Clements area.  Last year we worked very close with him to overcome a lot of the problems the 2022 season presented.  His name is Kevin Pitto.

This winter through Kevin we were introduced to a professional produce salesman who was going to strike out on his own.   He also worked for a large wine grape shipping company and another large local produce shipping company.  He is striking out on his own and in the spring he will be working with a very large cherry growing entity.  In the fall he will be working with us.  His name is Matt Nowak. 

Eventually I can see them becoming a part of our company.  My younger daughter Anna wants to be more involved in the business, but at this stage three young children are a priority.  How all this will work out with proper protocol will be developed over this spring and summer.  My object is to make sure our customers and growers will know that F. Colavita & Son will have solid continuity into the future.  

SEE YOU IN LANCASTER

Both Matt and I will be exhibiting in Booth 221 at the Eastern Winery Exposition Wednesday March 15 and Thursday16.  (We will be leaving early afternoon on the 16 to catch our return flight.)    Please stop by and say hello.  If you need some passes, please let me know.

WINTER WEATHER

We are experiencing some of coldest and, thank God, wettest winter in a long time.  Hopefully drought conditions will disappear.  Temperatures are in the 30s at night and not going higher than the middle 50s during the day.  There will be some serious frost damage for Almonds throughout the State, and I wouldn’t doubt on some Citrus.  Grapes are still very dormant.

THE PERLIMINARY CALIFORNIA GRAPE CRUSHCROP REPORT AND MARKETING CONDITIONS

The 2022 wine grape was light for the third straight year in a row.  The total was 3.35 tons (Not included were the total raison and table grapes crush).  It was the lightest in over a decade. It was less than projected due to frost, excessive heat and the continuous effects of drought.  In all respects the light crop may have been a blessing.  The crush probably put in balance supply and demand with the challenging consumer sales growth environment.   

With the current demand needs in question there is hardly any movement in new contracts being issued and wine sales.  The exception may be the North Coast areas and we are hearing of some activity in the Central Coast.

January 2023

Greetings everyone. I hope the new year is treating you well.

As I sit here contemplating this newsletter, it is hard to describe the 2022 grapes harvest and therefore almost impossible to predict what may occur in 2023. In a very simplistic and polite manner, 2022 was a very challenging year. Between weather, market conditions and crop yield, there were ups and downs.

The season saw drought, hailstorms, frost, unseasonably cool, humid or cloudy conditions, heat waves and rainfall and often in quick succession. The drought of the last few years continued all winter long and early spring. Irrigation water was only available if you had a well. No surface water from any Irrigation District was available in the entire State.

On top of the drought there was a lot of frost damage one spring morning. It was not predicted nor anticipated. It hit mostly northeast and northwest of Lodi and a few other parts of the State. After the frost occurred, the weather was so mild that normal bloom time was extended. A lot of berry shatter occurred when it got warmer. The shattered or loose bunches appeared in almost all varieties in some vineyards and in some growing areas.

The worst weather conditions occurred during harvest in the Labor Day week. Temperatures reached 115 degrees F on most days for almost a week. For both safety considerations for labor and the unknown effect of this heat on the vineyards, we continued our harvest only at night. Everything was culminated with rain fall in late September!

The grape market was very strong during last winter. Contracts were initiated at slightly higher prices than the 2021 season. There was aggressive buying. By springtime uncertainty in the general economy grew and wine sales started to slow down. The bigger wineries slowed down their buying. In contrast smaller wineries remained aggressive because of their lost tonnage due to frost and anticipated lighter crop.

For the third year in a row, they were predicting a below than average total crop. But an anomaly to this general assessment, we experienced phenomenal bumper crops in several vineyards. In dramatic contrast, we lost some vineyards that suffered total dehydration of their grapes because of the unparalleled heat wave. Way up and way down were our results, truly mind-blowing. It will be interesting what the total harvest will be 2022.

We experienced a very wet December and January is following suit. There has been significant rain almost every week and currently there may be almost two whole weeks of rain into the new year. We have a long way to go before drought conditions can be alleviated. Last year we had a very wet December and then nothing. With all the rain and windstorms hitting us continuously in January, the weather gives us hope that drought conditions will be alleviated.

Grape marketing predications are in the same state as our general economy. Nobody knows what is going to happen. Coastal grape buying supposedly is still very strong in response to recent lighter crops. There are indications from several sources that there will be an easing of prices.

The shocking rise of total cost of labor, materials and energy for 2022 exceeded the initial cost of most the grapes. It cannot continue in 2023. Let us hope that inflation will diminish, and all costs remain stagnant or go down. Surprisingly after these rising costs, horrible weather, marketing and harvesting developments sales to our winery customers increased in both total tonnage and dollar volume.

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SEE YOU IN SACRAMENTO & TEXAS

Please let us know if you are attending the The 2023 Unified Symposium in Sacramento on January 25 & 26. We can meet up. Also, we will probably be exhibiting in the Annual Texas trade show on February 22 & 23.

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The following bulk wines are available out of the Clements Hill sub AVA of Lodi. Please contact us for pricing.

Montepulciano 2020 - 660 gallons

Montepulciano 2021 - 4114 gallons

Nero D'Avalo 2021 - 40 gallons

Cabernet Sauvignon 2021 - 2000+ gallons

Grenache Blanc 2022 - 760 gallons

Marsanne 2022 -

645 gallons

Sauvignon Blanc 2021 - 120 gallons

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Thank you for your support. It is very encouraging, and we will continue our hard work to deliver the best quality available.

Please let us know if you plan on attending The 2023 Unified Symposium in Sacramento on January 25 & 26.

Thank you,

Michael Colavita

July 2022

A good news newsletter:

An article in Drizly 2022 Consumer Trend Report  BY KIRK MILLER

According to the latest drinks survey conducted during April 2022 from Drizly, the youngest legal-age drinkers are gravitating toward a parental staple: Red wine.

 “The nation’s youngest legal drinkers cited red wine as the drink they most anticipate buying more of this year, topping a list that included tequila and hard seltzer,” as the report notes. When asked what drink they plan to buy more of this year, Gen Z respondents put red wine (38%) on top, over tequila, vodka, hard seltzer, rosé and RTDs.

TIMING LOOKS GOOD

Normally we wait until after the Fourth of July to take our second assessment of the crop.  If we see a hint of veraison in early Zinfandels, we know that grape development is normal.  Surprisingly this year we saw a little veraison on our home vines on June 26.  We also heard that there may be a significant shatter in a lot of varieties.  Anxiety took control and we proceeded to our own review.

There was some ever slightly veraison in our early Old Vine Zinfandels.  That is great.  We did see some shatter in the Zinfandels but that is normal for the variety.  What did surprise us, was the shatter in some Cabernet Sauvignon vineyards.  With the bunch count being so high in May, we thought it may be a bumper crop especially for Cabernet Sauvignon.  With the shatter showing up and possibly smaller berry size, we just have a nice crop of grapes in all varieties.

Slight veraison in Old Vine Zinfandel Lodi - July 2022

PRICES SLIGHTLY HIGHER

There has not been much activity from the big wineries.  Slightly higher prices that were in effect early in the year stayed the same. Those higher prices reflected close to the 2021 final prices that wineries paid as bonuses over the original contracts for that year.   However, there are a lot of smaller wineries eagerly looking for specialty varieties that they lost due to frost.  This is especially true for Amador wineries.  We have also seen Napa wineries a lot more active in our area then they have been the last few years.  Still to be assessed will be labor and material costs.

THE BEST NEWS YET

In the beginning of the year freight rates rose almost 100% over the rates from the previous year.  That development sent chills through the refrigeration transportation industry.  Checking with freight brokers last week PRICES ARE NOW SLIGHTLY LOWER THAN THE RATES IN 2021.  This goes for all parts of the Country.  I don’t understand it but one broker said it could change in an instant.  Let’s hope that prices will drop even lower.

May 2022

FROST DAMAGE

On the morning of Tuesday April 12, 2022, temperatures dipped below freezing a few days after reaching 90°F in some places. The areas that seem to be seriously damaged are the Delta, Thornton, Sloughhouse, Clarksburg up off of Grant Line Road, and across the east side of Lodi that includes Clements and lower areas of the foothills and Amador County. There is some damage in Linden and Farmington. After almost a month, we are still hearing of some areas affected. Just last week, we heard that some vines in Livermore Valley were affected, especially Chardonnay. This frost was not generally predicted and if it was just a few degrees colder, the entire 2022 grape crop around the State could have been ruined.

This last week we tried to visit most of the vineyards from which we harvested grapes over the last few years. We were reassured by the report that most vineyards in the Lodi/Mokelumne River area were spared. Our main source in Amador County said he had no damage and we are not hearing any damage in our Coastal sources.

In visiting the unaffected vineyards, there appears to be a very good bunch count and size on all varieties. Don’t get us wrong, we still have a long way to go, especially weather at bloom time. But it is nice to see the forming bunches.

PRICING

In almost all Districts, there are not many grapes that are not under contract. The crop for 2021 turned out to be the 3.6 million tons that was estimated. With the second short crop in a row, most people expected wineries to significantly increase their prices. This has not occurred. A couple of major wineries did not try to buy more grapes. So far we are seeing prices rising only from $25/ton to $100/ton depending upon the variety. Maybe when accurate losses are assessed from the frost, things could change but we have locked up a lot of tonnage. There are some smaller wineries eagerly picking up grapes at much higher prices. We are not sure what is happening with prices in Coastal areas.

FREIGHT

The scariest aspect for the upcoming season is the prospect for another dramatic increase in transportation costs. Last year trips to the East Coast increased $5000 to $6000 over 2020 costs. This year there is currently an increase in refrigeration transportation costs of about $8000 over 2021. Let us hope that fuel prices will drop in the next four months and other factors help bring freight costs. Transportation plays a significant part in almost everything influencing our current inflation numbers.

DROUGHT

February and March 2022 proved to be the driest months ever recorded. The drought restrictions reached a point that any new well drilling is prohibited. With no water available from any irrigation districts, any new land development will be almost impossible.