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16 WINES&VINES September 2018 RICHARD DUVALL WINE INDUSTRY NEWS Sanitary Stainless Welding Inc. is the exclusive North American distributor for the Marzola product line which lead to concerns about moisture in the soil as the vines entered the growing season. But because of a "few good soakings" in March, those concerns were al- leviated — though bud break oc- curred later than anticipated in early April. Olney said things have evened out temperature-wise. "There have been a few heat spikes with tem- peratures over 100," he said, "but July has been pretty moderate, especially over the last two weeks." He added he expects that har- vest won't begin in the estate vine- yards until Sept. 10. Olney said that there's been a lot of steady, periodic wind during the growing season that's helped limit the occurrence of mildew. And though there have been a few mealy bug sightings, the vineyard team has released predatory wasps to sustainably take care of that issue. In Sonoma County's Russian River Valley, Nicole Bacigalupi, third generation owner of Baciga- lupi Vineyards, said, "All varieties across the board look better than last year." The family's estate vineyards, located on Westside Road where they also own and operate their winery and tasting room, are planted to 121 acres of predomi- nantly Pinot Noir and Chardon- nay, as well as Zinfandel and Petite Sirah. T h o u g h B a c i g a l u p i s a i d they're "right on track with 'nor- mal'" this year, she noted that there's been significantly less fog in the Russian River Valley than in past years. "This may make our picking dates slightly earlier than we would have had with a similar temperature year with fog," she said. Bacigalupi said the vines' yields are slightly up from last year in most blocks of Pinot Noir, Zinfandel and Petite Sirah, with estimates of 4 to 5 tons per acre. Chardonnay, she said, is about on par with last year, and is expected to yield about 3 tons per acre. Large crop predicted in the Northwest All signs are pointing to an above- average wine grape crop in the Northwest, and growers from Brit- ish Columbia to Oregon were busy thinning clusters in mid-August as veraison kicked in. Some of the biggest numbers are likely to come out of Wash- ington state. A preliminary fore- c a s t f r o m t h e Wa s h i n g t o n Winegrowers Association, which represents growers across the state, puts the 2018 crop at a po- tential 268,255 tons. This is on par with the 2016 record of 270,000 tons but 17% above last year's harvest of 229,000 tons. B y c o n t r a s t , O r e g o n h a r- vested more than 85,000 tons, Many growers in Oregon and Washington have been dropping green clusters as they plan for bountiful harvest in the Northwest.