Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/1007939
August 2018 WINES&VINES 15 WINE INDUSTRY NEWS Filter your wine on-premises with ATPGroup Mobile Services. We'll bring our state-of-the-art equipment for Lees Filtration or Cross-Flow Filtration to your winery. Best of all, we'll do all the work, all the cleanup. No muss, no fuss filtration. To find ouT whaT we can do for you, conTacT aTPgrouP aT (707) 836-6840 or online aT www.aTPgrouP.com G rowers and winemakers expressed optimism in mid-July about the 2018 California wine grape harvest as bunch closure was occurring in many parts of the state. An average to above- average crop of about 4 million to 4.25 million tons was predicted by well-informed sources including the Allied Grape Growers coopera- tive and Ciatti & Co., grape and bulk wine brokers. Winemakers also liked what they saw in vineyards in terms of crop size and condition. "In terms of quality, the vines have great uni- formity, and pest pressure has been very low," said Ryan Stapleton, director of grower rela- tions for The Family Coppola. He sources fruit for 1.6 million cases of wine. Much comes from near the winery's Sonoma County base but also as far south as the Santa Rita Hills in Santa Barbara County and as far north as Redwood Valley in Mendocino County. "Because of that uniformity, it looks to be a really good year so far, but we'll see what mother nature throws our way during the next several weeks." Stapleton and others interviewed by Wines & Vines noted that the growing season has been relatively cool in most of the coastal counties. Growing degree days have lagged behind last year, measuring 115 degree days behind 2017 in Windsor, Calif., in northern Sonoma County through July 12, for example, and 170 degree days behind 2014 for the same period. That raised a caution flag about a potentially later than average harvest risking damage from au- tumn rains, but it was too early in the season for serious worries. Supply is strong The wine industry had been in a reasonably balanced supply-demand situation since the 2017 vintage was completed. However, with retail sales of U.S. wine decelerating from a 5% rate of growth in June 2017 to less than 1% growth in June 2018, according to bw166. com, some of the larger wineries now have adequate if not more than adequate inventories TOP STORY Average-Plus California Crop Predicted; Supply Already Strong as Harvest Approaches Vine uniformity and low pest pressure are pluses.