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GRAPE GRO WING NA VIGA TION Highlights • The author learned that having good crop insurance requires decisions about available options long before bud break. • Insurance rates for grapegrowers dropped dramatically in 2010 and may drop another 9%-10% for 2011. • Rates and rules are all set by the gov- ernment, so the agent's level of personal service is the grower's main variable. • The deadline for filing a new policy for 2011 is Jan. 31. Arizona vineyards such as Canelo Hills (pictured) were hit by a devastating hail storm in August that destroyed nearly all of the winegrape crop. Choosing Crop Insurance O ne Sonoma County vine- yard owner summed up the situation in six words: "All that was missing were locusts." He was speaking, of course, about the 2010 California growing season, labeled by The (Santa Rosa, Calif.) Press Democrat as "the worst harvest ever." Early anecdotal reports indicated that crop yields in Men- docino, Lake County, Napa and especially Sonoma were down by 35% or more. Battered by perverse weather—copious spring rains lasting until early summer, a frigid July and August that saw chilly nights and days suddenly yielding blister- ing heat—grape clusters suffered severely from mildew at one extreme and sunburn at the other. Winemaker Greg La Follette of La Fol- lette Wines explains that during an ideal summer, a grape's skin slowly "tans," just 60 Wines & Vines JAnUARY 2011 as ours does, and gradually builds up protection against sunburn. Since cold weather prevented grapes from becoming properly acclimated, their skins lacked the pigmentation compounds needed to defend against the fierce sun and 108°F temperatures of late August and Septem- ber. They fried, melted and shriveled. "It's like me with my white skin sud- denly ripping off my shirt on the hottest day of the year. I'd blister and be seared beet red," LaFollette says. When such calamities befall vineyard owners, whom do they call? Not Grape- busters. No, they call their insurance agents, and they try to remember whether they elected for full crop coverage—now up to 85%—at contract varietal prices for a higher premium; lower county average grape prices for less money; or if they took the cheapest option, Catastrophic Coverage (CAT for short), for a $300 flat Wild 2010 growing season underlines the benefits of coverage By Stephen Yafa fee per variety per vineyard, independent of acreage. A grower with three varieties planted in a 3-acre vineyard pays $900 total, and another grower with three varieties planted in a 30-acre vineyard also pays $900 total. CAT is a safety valve during good years and proved to be a costly mistake for many in 2010, when flat-fee coverage penciled out to reim- burse barely half of growers' real losses. (Some growers purchase CAT insurance primarily to qualify for USDA supple- mental disaster insurance under the SURE program; they hope to recoup losses from a devastating event like the 2008 spring frost.) These coverage levels and condi- tions are determined and strictly regulated by the federal government's Risk Manage- ment Agency. RMA contracts with crop insurance companies (approved insurance providers), who in turn contract with property casualty licensed agents.