Spear Vineyards lost more than half its chardonnay crop and just under a quarter of its pinot noir crop to mildew, grower and owner Ofer Shepher told the Sun.
“Unfortunately, with the weather patterns we had, not so much the rain but the lack of wind, we had a lot of mildew pressure,” Shepher said. “We had this perfect combination of mildew potential, and when you don’t have the subsequent air movement afterward to dry everything out, you end up with mildew.”
Mildew creates a white dusting that looks similar to powdered sugar on the grapes, Shepher said. Once growers kill the mildew, it changes to a black crust on the outside of the berry. While “a little spot here and there” isn’t the end-all be-all, clusters have to be chopped down if whole berries or clusters become infected to save the remaining healthy fruits.
“We are growing world-class fruit, and we don’t want to take any chances on our reputation,” he said. “I think pinot took an 18 to 20 percent hit and chardonnay … probably averaged 55 percent.”
The Santa Rita Hills certified organic vineyard’s mildew protection practices have been effective for the last 14 to 15 years without causing any big hit to their crops, but the 2023 season caused Spear Vineyard to up its own measures and practices to prevent the spores from spreading.
“What we’re concerned about this year is mildew spores set from [2023], they are from the previous year,” Shepher said. “If you have a big mildew load one year and the same conditions, you will have another issue.”
Vineyards statewide faced one of the highest mildew pressure records in the history of grape growing during the 2023 harvest, Turrentine Brokerage’s Central Coast Director of Grape Brokerage Audra Cooper told the Sun.
“Last year, thankfully, was a very wet rain year. We got rains that were welcomed, but the amount of rain and how late the season ended up being for growers put us at a disadvantage for getting out there [with] sprays,” Cooper said. “In Santa Barbara County, we are talking about more than 1,000 tons that were rejected, but to a lesser effect than [in] some areas of California. … I hope to never see those kinds of rejections again on mildew in my career.”
However, the weighted average of grapes did not drop in most cases, but increased because the colder weather allowed for a “lengthy hang time” allowing the fruit to reach full maturity, Cooper added.
According to Turrintine’s summary of the preliminary 2023 Winegrape Crush Report—a California Department of Food and Agriculture summary containing tons crushed and prices of wine sold during the 2023 harvest—vineyards statewide crushed 3.6 million tons of grapes, but the crop would have been “considerably larger” if not for low demand and disease pressure.
“For the first time in the wine industry, we have had three-plus years of declining wine consumption, and that has put a damper on projecting future sales and is not giving wineries enough confidence to buy grapes for a vintage,” Cooper said.
The Central Coast crushed 523,755 tons of grapes, increasing by 23 percent from 2022, but the decrease in demand meant an excess supply, which can cause prices to decline, Cooper said. Pinot noir in Santa Barbara County, Edna Valley, and SLO Coast is experiencing an oversupply, with 27,435 tons in total production and wineries deciding against purchasing all the grapes. Other varieties, like cabernet, red blends, and chardonnay are experiencing various degrees of “smaller significance.”
“It was a really tough year, … a nail-biter with whether we are going to get the varietals ripe. We did end up catching up at the end of the season,” Cooper said. “The most positive, important thing is that the quality of the resulting wines should be exceptional. There are many people who are saying that this could be the vintage of the past decade.”
This article appears in Feb 22 – Mar 3, 2024.