Arizona Wine Growers: 'People are bringing in some beautiful fruit'

(DailyJournal) - Southern Arizona winemakers have started harvesting their red wine grapes after waiting out heavy late monsoon rains that threatened to kill the fruit's sugar levels and wreak havoc with bunch rot.

Surprisingly, very little fruit was lost to rot, vineyard managers said.

"What I am hearing from everyone is that it is a good harvest," said Peggy Fiandaca, president of the Arizona Wine Growers Association. "People are bringing in some beautiful fruit."

The story is a little less optimistic in the Verde Valley, which has been hammered with heavy rains and cooler temperatures throughout late August and into early this month. Most winemakers there project yields will be down or flat at best.

"It's kind of hit and miss," said Jeff Hendricks, vineyard operations director for Page Springs Cellars in Cornville, which has 30 acres under vine on its four estate vineyards. "We still have quite a bit of fruit hanging, but I think it's going to be an average yield for us."

At Cottonwood's Alcantara Vineyards, owner Barbara Predmore is hoping she can salvage just shy of eight tons of fruit after losing most of her crop to a pair of late April freezes that caught her by surprise.

"I do have freeze protection on my vines, but I did not choose to use those," she said. "It's farming; sometimes you flip a coin, and I definitely lost."

Predmore anticipates the lost fruit will cost her $200,000 in future wine sales.

"It is kind of frustrating, but all you can do is look forward to next year and make sure those problems don't happen again," she said.