Farmers may face the wrath of waterlogged grapes

August 29, 2003

Local farmers may be waiting on bated breath this month as recent rain and warm temperatures may cause grapes to mold throughout the East County area, as well as Oakley. It may seem hard to believe, but a little too much water at this stage in the game for grape growers may not be a good thing after all.

We may not be Napa or Sonoma Valley, but Oakley is famous throughout the California wine industry for its zinfandel grape vineyards as well as some vineyards that have grapes that are more than 100 years old.

The next few weeks mark the traditional harvest season for grapes in the Oakley area, but the sudden onset of rain this past week or so may make some farmers a little nervous. The rain may disappear from the ground quick enough as it drains into the sand, but it won't leave the vines all that soon. In fact, while some may think that the heat after a strong rain will help to dry the leaves and grapes it has more of a moisturizing effect.

"It's called bunch rot," said Joe Duarte, who has been farming in Oakley all of his life. His father grew grapes here before Duarte was born. Duarte said that the rain will bring on some damage; it is just a matter of how much of the crop can be salvaged and how much damage was actually done.

He won't know those answers until he finishes picking the grapes between now and the end of September.

Like Duarte, many farmers have already started picking their grapes. It all depends on the variety of grape and how they have been growing over the year whether they are ready or not to pick. For these farmers it's all about sugars.

"You really wouldn't want to eat most of the grapes produced here in Oakley," said Miguel Boscana, a representative from Rosenblum Cellars. "The skin is much tougher than grapes you buy in the store. They make better wine than eating grapes."

Rosenblum purchases its grapes from four of the leading Oakley growers: Diablo Vista Vineyards, run by Dwight Meadows and his family, with their biggest lot on O'Hara Avenue; Continente Growers, run by John Continente off of Sandy Lane; Planchon Vineyards, run by Stan and Gertie Planchon, located off of Empire Avenue; and Pato Vineyards, run by the Pato Family.

Duarte sells his grapes to bottlers such as V.Sattui Winery in St. Helena, and Tully and T-Vine which are private wine growers who sell to restaurants and the like.

While these five families are longtime wine growers, over the past few years some newer vineyards have opened in the Oakley area. Many of these were started a couple of years ago, because it was something to do with the land while the real estate market was soft. Unfortunately, now the grape industry is soft in California as fewer people are drinking wine and there is a glut of grape vineyards in the state.

For Oakley's five families this year's crop has been doing well. Just this past year wine made from Meadows' grapes won gold medals at the California State Fair and other competitions throughout the state.

Rosenblum Winery owner and winemaker Kent Rosenblum said of the wine when I spoke to him a couple of years ago at the Oakley Almond Festival, "This is one of the finest Contra Costa County Zinfandels we have had the privilege of making. It exhibits a huge core of black cherry fruit with vanilla in the bouquet."

Even Duarte had the opportunity to expand the sales of his grapes this past year by offering his grapes to V. Sattui Winery, a very popular winery near St. Helena in Napa Valley offering a large picnic area, snack and lunch shop and wine tasting. It is not uncommon to attend a weekend in Napa Valley and find the winery booked with visitors from California and beyond.

Does the rain this week mean that you won't be hearing the loud Zon guns that go off each year around the middle of September to scare off birds? I'm afraid not. It is likely that many of the growers will be picking grapes well into next month. Unfortunately, that is the nature of the beast. I know what it feels like to have the critters bothering grapes and strawberries in the back yard. Sometimes I think it might be a good idea to get one of the Zon guns myself to scare the birds away. Unfortunately, it does nothing for the squirrels and raccoons.

Roni Gehlke's column on life in Oakley appears each week in the Brentwood News.

Distributed by the Contra Costa Times

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