Trucks full of wine grapes clogged roads all over northern California wine country this week as wineries raced to get their precious cargo into tanks before a brutal heatwave shriveled them to raisins.
"This heat spell has been longer without any mercy period than any other I've seen during crush period," said Jon Dodge, who owns a vineyard on Howell Mountain in Napa Valley and was vineyard manager at Burgess Cellars for 20 years. "A lot of people have been hurt by it."
Farmers know that every year is different, but the contrast between the 2023 and 2024 California vintages is stark. Last year was a long, cool ripening season that stretched into November; the main (ultimately unrealized) fear was that rain or some other event would hit the grapes before harvest.
This year has been warm since July, but the first week of October hit a new level, as several areas of northern California set all-time high temperature records. The good news is that because the summer was warm, many grapes – especially white grapes like Sauvignon Blanc – had been harvested already, before the sweltering heat hit. Also, heat-loving varieties like Zinfandel and Grenache should be fine. I hung out with Grenache winemaking specialist Angela Osborne in Santa Barbara County last week in 98F (37C) heat, and she was ebullient about the grape quality and the vines' ability to resist and even thrive while I was wilting.
The less good news is that the state's vintage will not be judged by Sauvignon Blanc and Grenache, or, sadly, by Zinfandel, much of which might be left on the vine because of low market demand. Fairly or not, the vintage's reputation hangs on Cabernet Sauvignon, some of which is literally still hanging out to dry.
"Everything that's out at this stage of the game is Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc, the later varietals," said Caleb Mosley, executive director of Napa Valley Grapegrowers.
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