KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – With autumn quickly approaching, Lake County winegrape growers are beginning this year’s harvest of varietals, having started in some vineyards as early as mid-August.
Several of the area’s growers are reporting the 2013 crop promises to deliver high-quality fruit from Lake County vines.
David Weiss of Bella Vista Farming said the weather has been good for grapes this year.
“As a result, it could be a very good quality vintage,” he said.
Weiss has already started harvesting Sauvignon Blanc in the Kelsey Bench area.
He said a warmer spring “got things going sooner,” and while there have been a couple of heat spikes, they were anticipated spikes so growers were able to irrigate without a problem.
Since then, the area has enjoyed nice, mild warm days and dry conditions, which have contributed to an earlier harvest across all varietals this year, he said.
Along with the weather, light crops found in certain areas – he cited one vineyard in the Big Valley region – contribute to the early harvesting period.
He looks to harvest a small hillside vineyard of Viognier on Mount Konocti and other Sauvignon Blanc vineyards in Big Valley this week.
Despite some lighter vineyards and an “average” Sauvignon Blanc crop, the winegrapes are better than last year and the quality is “very nice,” said Weiss.
Also beginning harvest in the Kelsey Bench area, winegrape grower Myron Holdenried said he is seeing a “very nice crop” coming out of the area’s vineyards.
They are mature and well-balanced, he noted, commenting on the flavors of the Sauvignon Blanc he has started to pick.
“We were able to irrigate through the heat spells,” he said. “I don’t see any damage to the fruit as a result of weather.”
Holdenried estimates harvest will take him through late October and will include eight different varietals.
He said he also anticipates a good year with the harvest being about a week earlier than usual.
In the mountains of the Lower Lake region of the Red Hills AVA, the Cabernet Sauvignon is “thriving,” according to Tracey Hawkins who, along with her husband Mitch, grows Petit Verdot, Petite Sirah, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc at Hawk and Horse Vineyards.
“We are in the final days of veraison (transition from berry growth to berry ripening),” reported Tracey Hawkins. “We are seeing large, loose clusters with beautiful berries of about average size.”
She said Cabernet Sauvignon is about 90 percent through veraison while Petit Verdot, Petite Sirah and Cabernet Franc are almost complete.
She indicated very few berries lack their deep indigo color and random samples showed sugars between 18 to 20 degrees brix.
Calling the growing season “a thing of beauty,” Hawkins said she and her husband are pleased with this year’s maturation. “We saw slightly late flowering and bud break, but a heat spike in July began to move things along.”
She said the high elevation area has experienced a fairly consistent cycle of warm days and cool nights.
“Our hearty mountain-grown Cabernet Sauvignon is thriving,” Hawkins said.
In 2012, Lake County experienced a 20-percent rise in winegrapes’ gross value, from $40 million in 2011 to $47.9 million last year, according to the Lake County Department of Agriculture’s annual crop report.
Production for the year was up by 800 tons from the previous year. Lake County vineyard acreage remains steady at about 8,400 acres.
Susan Stout writes for the Lake County Winegrape Commission.