Washington Winegrape Harvest Earlier Than Ever

 

Advertisement

This year’s juice and winegrape harvest in Washington is historic.

Michelle Moyer, Washington State University assistant professor, Dept. of Horticulture and statewide viticulture extension specialist, says some vineyards were picking grapes for sparkling wine in the first and second weeks of August, and juice processing plants, which typically open for delivery after Labor Day, were already taking fruit in late August.

“That’s really, really early for them – almost a month ahead of average,” Moyer says.

Last year, harvest was about two weeks ahead of schedule, but Moyer says it still followed a general pattern, starting with sparkling, then some of the whites and finally the reds. This year, there seems to be no pattern.

Top Articles
Equipment Updates Propel Davidian's Farm Market Into The Future

“It’s totally location-dependent, but whites are almost four weeks ahead for everything, and then, some of the varieties that normally ripen earlier than others, or ones that ripen later than others, are all falling on top of each other,” she says.

Above-normal temperatures in the spring led to early bud break, and a hotter-than-usual summer helped fuel the early ripening.

“Typically grapevines tend to slow down a little bit when it gets too hot, and our nighttime temperatures are also a little bit warmer than normal, so we were expecting things to slow down due to the heat,” Moyer says. “But things just continued to pick up.”

Moyer anticipates cooler temperatures the first week in September could slow things down, but she doesn’t think the heat from this summer will have a negative impact on wine quality. In hot years, acid tends to be lower in the fruit, and sugar is a little higher. But both of these can be easily adjusted in the winery.

“These are issues that typically we don’t have to deal with in Washington, but they’re super common in California, so it’s not really a problem, per se, it’s just a little different from what we’re normally dealing with on an annual basis,” she says. “That’s the wonderful thing about dealing with winegrapes, is part of wine quality is in the vineyard, and part of it is in the winery, and we have a lot of tools to adjust in challenging years or even good years to whatever we want them to be in the winery.”

The biggest challenge the early harvest might create for growers is figuring out the logistics, particularly with a lot of fruit coming in simultaneously. “This year it seems like hops, apples and grapes are all happening at the same time, so that’s going to be the biggest challenge – not necessarily the quality, but getting the people to get things done in a timely manner,” Moyer says.

0