SANTA ROSA (California) PRESS-DEMOCRAT

September 13, 2006

High-anxiety grape season

Late crops, so-so yields and possibility of farmworker shortage has vintners on edge

By TIM TESCONI
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

There's high anxiety in Wine Country as the harvest slowly gets under way.

The grape crop is late, yields are down, birds are a terrible problem and there are looming fears there won't be enough laborers to pick the crop.

"The 900-pound gorilla in the room is labor," said Fred Buonanno of Brutocao Vineyards & Cellars in Hopland and chairman of the Mendocino Winegrape and Wine Commission. "In the weeks ahead we will be tested."

Buonanno was among growers and vintners from Mendocino, Sonoma, Lake and Marin counties gathered Tuesday in Santa Rosa to provide a "state of the harvest" for the region's wine grape crop.

The harvest has barely started, with 10 percent of the estimated 420,000-ton crop in Napa, Sonoma, Lake and Mendocino counties tucked into tanks. Marin County has yet to start picking.

The good news amid the vineyard gloom is that there is a large, lush crop of pinot noir grapes. It's a grape varietal pushed to the top of the price charts by the movie "Sideways," which praises pinot as bottled poetry.

It's one of the best pinot noir crops in years, and growers are joyous at the rare, winning combination of high yields and record prices.

The yields of most other grape varietals are average to average-minus, with chardonnay, the leading varietal planted in Sonoma County, in the average-minus category.

The looming farm labor shortage is the biggest worry as the harvest heats up.

Tighter security along the border with Mexico and higher-paying jobs in construction, landscaping and other industries have reduced the farm labor work force throughout California.

Growers said the harvest won't get fast and furious until early October because grapes are maturing about 10 days later than last year.

The harvest will be tightly compressed with white and red grape varietals ripening all at once, straining nerves and tank space in winery cellars.

Vineyard manager Clay Shannon of Lake County said he can't wait until November when the last grapes are brought from the vineyards and the 2006 harvest is history.

"I hate harvest," Shannon said. "People are at their worst - frustrating, demanding and controlling."

During the first three weeks of October, growers said thousands of farmworkers will be needed to pick ripening grapes in the more than 125,000 acres of vineyards in the North Coast counties.

The saving grace is that increasingly sophisticated techniques for growing top quality grapes require a year-round work force. These resident workers will be the core harvest crews in the vineyards.

"I think there is enough labor to go around for people who manage their labor on a year-round basis," grower Steve Hill of Sonoma said.

The wine industry and the rest of California agriculture are pushing hard for a comprehensive overhaul of federal immigration laws.

Growers would like to see a guest-worker program, which would allow foreign workers to accept jobs here and return home when they finish.

"The irrational immigration policy we have now is going to destroy us," Marin County grower Mark Pasternak said Tuesday.

Buonanno of Mendocino County said he is increasing wages and looking at providing more housing in the future to keep a stable crew of vineyard workers.

Government labor figures from previous years show 1,500 extra workers are hired for the grape harvest in Sonoma County. That's a figure that may not be met this year.

Growers predict that if the workers don't come, more grapes will be harvested by machines this year than in the past. The message is clear: The region's $900 million wine grape crop will be harvested somehow, some way.

"We bought a machine. There is a way, and we will get the grapes in," said Rich Schaefers, general manager of the Mendocino Vineyard Co.

The other big worry is that the tardy crop will push the harvest later into the fall, when there's a greater chance of rain.

Growers said grapes will be particularly vulnerable to rot and ruin this year because the clusters are large and tight - prime conditions for mold and rot after heavy rain.

"With the big, tight bunches the potential for disaster is there," Pasternak said.