California Central Coast Harvest Almost A Wrap

[Larry McGourty]

The 2009 harvest is wrapping up for us on the Central Coast. We see the mechanical pickers still running full time on the East side. No doubt they are trying to beat the first rain of the season we are expecting this coming week. Hopefully everyone will be done before the rain comes. Not only will the rain bring much needed moisture, it will help to start the walnut harvest, which is coming up next, by splitting the walnut husks so they can be processed easier.

What a difference a week makes. Two weeks ago we were struggling in 105F heat to bring in the last of our Sangiovese. The next week we were picking Zinfandel in the 50s That's the California Central Coast, it can be really variable from week to week. Luckily it usually averages out to optimal growing conditions. But, there are days where even us mostly dry farmers need to switch on the irrigation system to keep the crop as wine grapes instead of turning into raisins. Luckily those were few this year.

Despite the drought and somewhat lower yields accordingly, the fruit looks really good this year. We had no problem reaching our brix and pH targets, everything ripened really nicely. We were mostly waiting on the winemakers who were swamped with fruit coming in --all at the same time. Most growers are reporting the same, good quality, lower yields. Given the state of the economy, that probably is a good thing for both the growers and the wineries. The system could not handle a grape glut this year.

[Larry McGourty]

Wow, we got drenched over the last two days. In the Santa Lucia Mountains on the California Central Coast where our vineyard is located we got over 5" of rain. That was about 40% of last years TOTAL. We just barely finished harvesting our grenache (which usually comes in late) before the rains came.

The results look really good this year for the Central Coast. Prices are stable so wine drinkers can expect some really good reasonably priced wine coning into the market in a couple of years. Except for Monterey, the Central Coast (as well as Lodi inland) is doing well relative to the rest of California. Quality wise wines are a bargain from here.