Grape and Bulk Wine Prices Stable After Big Harvests

(Wines&Vines) - Sonoma County growers received an update on grape and wine prices as well as details about the push toward countywide vineyard sustainability certification at today’s Dollars and $ense program.

Hosted by the Sonoma County Winegrowers, the session featured a presentation from Turrentine Brokerage vice president Brian Clements and broker Matt Cuneo. The two titled their presentation “2013: A Wine Odd-yssey,” riffing on the classic science fiction movie “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

The “oddness” they referred to started with the recession, which was followed by an almost critical shortage of California bulk wine. Two large harvests across most of the state in 2012 and 2013—as well as significant new acreage in the Central Valley—appear to have rectified the shortage.

Clements said grape buyers in the Central Valley told him the 2013 harvest was not so much a big crop, but rather the 100,00 acres of vines planted during the past five years are now starting to reach maturity. “At 10 tons an acre, that’s a lot of grapes,” he said. 

The new ‘floor’ for California grape production
Clements said he now considers 4 million tons the new “floor” for California’s harvest; 2013 is expected to yield 4 million tons if not more. “These numbers are going to keep getting bigger every year, unless Mother Nature has a say in it,” he told the audience.