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July 2015 WINES&VINES 19 WINE INDUSTRY NEWS S an Rafael, Calif.—As year f i v e o f t h e C a l i f o r n i a drought gets under way, the wine industry welcomes the smallest drop of precipitation. "The only rain Napa has had in the past month" was a mere sprin- kle, Jennifer Kopp Putnam, execu- tive director of the Napa Valley Grapegrowers, told Wines & Vines in early June. "It was an early bud break and an early but extended bloom this year." Just north of Napa, Lake County reported a smattering more rain- fall. Jonathan Walters of Brassfield Estate Winery, president of the Lake County Winegrape Commis- sion, said, "The month of May has probably pushed back harvest due to the lower temperatures." Similar conditions prevailed in the vast Central Coast appellation. In the Santa Cruz Mountains, "Al- most every vineyard has reported cool temperatures showing in the vines with the signature yellows that lighten the leaves when spring temperatures drop," said Prudy Foxx, local viticulture ex- pert and board member of the Santa Cruz Mountains Winegrow- ers Association (SCMWA). Nevertheless, a little untimely damp can engender problems in vineyards. "There is some Botrytis in isolated vineyards, where the wet pressure rotted off flower clusters before they could set—or where the spray program or heavy canopy did not protect the deli- cate flowers. Pinot Noir, as always, is the most sensitive to these con- ditions, and set might be down with this fruit," Foxx said. Reporting from neighboring Monterey County, Matt Shea, vineyard manager of Bernardus Vineyards and Winery said, "We have had a colder than average last few months with relatively little rainfall…Any degree-day ac- cumulation advancing the season from our warmer than average start was averaged out," Shea said. "While the vines appreciate any drop of rain, the timing did occur during a long, drawn-out flowering. I expect to see a small drop in yield due to a high number of stuck caps. Reporting from the landlocked Livermore Valley Winegrowers As- sociation, John Concannon of Concannon Vineyard said, "The Livermore Valley continues to be very dry with only 0.47 inches of rainfall in May....I continue to see a slightly lower yield this year, but the vines do not appear to be stressed at this time." Still, the prognosis remains dire for California agriculture, ac- cording to the California Water Blog, published by the University of California Davis' Center for Wa- tershed Sciences. "The drought is expected to be worse for California's agricultural economy this year because of re- duced water availability," it stated. "The study estimates farmers will have 2.7 million acre-feet less surface water than they would in a normal water year—about a 33% loss of water supply, on aver- age. The impacts are concentrated mostly in the San Joaquin Valley and are not evenly distributed. Individual farmers will face losses of between zero and 100%. —Jane Firstenfeld California Grateful for Showers, Even During Bloom For more information contact your sales representative or email us at info@seguinmoreau.com Quick & efficient. For final production stages. Two weeks contact (or less). F i n i s h e r Images from Concannon Vineyard in the Livermore Valley illustrate vine growth between March (left) and May.