harvest reports
Budbreak 2003 - A Reality Check
To My Friends:
The 2003 vintage has burst on the scene early. Budbreak in the North Coast is about 10 days in advance of 2002. The reason is a warm and dry second half of winter. We had all of our rain, close to 40 inches, front loaded in December, then almost nothing. What this means viticulturally is anyone's guess.
The activity and negotiation that is going on between winery and grower is as fast as the vines are growing in the vineyards. Believe it or not, grape prices in Napa rose 3.9% and only dropped 4.8% in Sonoma. This means that grapes are still at or near record highs. Remember, there are lots of new vineyards coming on line this year, especially for Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir.
Taking these realities into consideration and adding in the fact that it is a hyper-competitive global market in the US and around the world adds up to some very tough decisions for wineries and growers. A large gap exists in California between the cost of goods and the selling price on the shelf or wine list.
At this time, Benziger Family Winery is meeting with all of its key growers to taste individual lots of wine grown in their vineyards and engaging in discussions on how we can continue to ratchet up quality, while creating better efficiencies in the vineyard and winery in order to save money and bring grape pricing down. We are clearly articulating to each grower that quality is paramount. Tonnage must be watched closely (we do not need extra grapes) and grape pricing must come into line with market realities. In our relationships with our best growers, there is a sense that if we both invest now by being aggressive in the market, it will pay off down the line.
Sonoma Mountain, March 20, 2003