LODI, Calif. — Grapes are San Joaquin County’s second-highest-valued commodity, and according to a new report, this year proved to be a challenging season for growers.
“At this point, we’ve finished harvest and our vines are starting to go dormant," said Stuart Spencer, executive director of the Lodi Winegrape Commission. "The growers will begin pruning the vines here in a couple of weeks as it gets colder."
The Lodi Winegrape Commission released a report Monday, analyzing the harvest season. According to the report, the challenges for grape growers in 2023 started at the beginning.
"I think 2023 will go down as one of the more challenging harvests we’ve seen in recent memory, and it's one that most growers in the Lodi area don’t want to see repeated," said Spencer. "We had a very late season, we had cool weather in August and September and increased humidity, which led to a lot of challenges in the farming side of it, and delayed harvest and led to some disease pressure and some rot issues.”
With burn piles on standby and grape vines covered in brown leaves, all it takes is a drive past any of the vineyards in the Lodi area to tell that the harvest season is over. However, a closer look exposes bunches of grapes left dangling from many of the dormant vines.
"The grape market was oversupplied and because of that, there were a lot of grapes that didn’t get harvested this year or grapes that got rejected by the wineries and that was disappointing to see," said Spencer. "I think we’re still in a challenging market. Wine sales have been flat to negative in recent years... I think we've got another couple of years of tight conditions unless there's something dramatic that changes."
According to the report, it wasn't all disappointment. For example, last winter’s series of destructive storms added to soil moisture.
"The quality of some of the wines this year is exceptional," said Spencer. "I think customers will be able to taste that from some of our smaller artisan wineries that make delicious wines.”
With more high-quality wines on the way, the unique season might also allow customers to sip a little more.
"Because of the late growing season, the grapes matured at lower sugar levels so we were able to make really nice wines at lower alcohol levels, so you can actually enjoy more of it," said Spencer. "Supporting your local farmer is critical to the success and health and welfare of all California."
Watch more from ABC10: The history of Mikami Vineyards in Lodi | To The Point
