Wine Continued from Page 1
haps get somevineyards out of theground that are slated for removal anyway in the next fewyears.” As for water, Bitter said he didn’t factor that into his projections because it’s im- possible to predict the situation. Bitter said the critical time to apply water is at the end of winter, and some growers may havebeen reluctant todo this if they know they’ll be short ofwater later in the season. “That’swhywe saw, ina lot of cases, that short shoot growth and stunted growth,” Bitter said. “You didn’t have a good start; you didn’t have any deep soil moisture. If we don’t go into the spring with a reserve, that just compounds the problem even more. I definitely see the drought and the water concerns in the state continuing to plague all of agriculture, not just wine.” Supply-chain issuesalsoare topofmind for grape growers. Bitter said that, in addi- tion to fertilizer andherbicides,winegrape growers are having trouble getting the ba- sic building blocks of a vineyard. “If you want to put a vineyard in, you can’t just call up your steel yard and say, ‘Hey, I want to order 40,000 stakes and have them delivered in a couple weeks,’” Bitter said. “It’s like, ‘OK, I’ll put youon the list, and I’ll call you in three months and seewhere it’s at—see if it’son theboat yet.’” In the meantime, all a would-be grape grower can do is wait. “You’re going to want to develop a
winegrape vineyard on steel stakes,” Bitter said. “There’s not really any good alternatives today.” When the ship carrying the stakes does finally show up, the price tags on the pre- cious metal are likely to be higher. Stakes used to run $3 to $4 per copy, depending on the stake’sheight andwidth, Bitter said; now they run $5 and up. “When you plant a vineyard, you’ve got hundreds of stakes per acre,” Bitter said. “It addsuppretty fast. You’re talkingabout hundreds of dollars per acre in additional cost if it just goes up a buck or two bucks.” Boosting wine shipments, which Bitter citedas anothermeans of easingoversup- ply concerns, may depend on demand. Speakers at the symposium noted the wine-drinking population is getting older. “You have aging baby-boomer popula- tions,” saidMario Zepponi of Santa Rosa- based Zepponi & Co., which specializes in mergers and acquisitions. “They’re drinking less wine, and they’re not being replacedbyyoungerdrinkers that have the same enthusiasm for wine.” Part of this is becauseofwhatZepponi termeda“better- for-you”movement. “Consumers want less alcohol, a better, moreholisticnaturalproduct—lowersugar, lowercarb, lowercalories—andthisexplains thephenomenonof seltzers,”Zepponi said. Danny Brager of Brager Beverage Alcohol Consulting pointed to a survey asking various age groupswhat adult bev- erage they’d most likely bring to a party.
Nearly half of the 65-and-older respon- dents said they’d bring wine; that per- centage declined steeply among younger drinkers, with only 15% of the 21-to-34 crowd saying they’d bring wine. Most of the rest of the younger demographicwere more likely to bring beer, flavored malt beverages, hard seltzers or spirits. “They’re choosing different drinks right acrosstheentirebeveragealcoholspectrum, depending on the occasion,” Brager said. “They’reseekingauthenticbrandswithau- thenticstories, opentoexplorationanddis- coveryof somethingnewtothem,andoften will pursue some formof entertainment as part of thedrinkingexperience.” The question for winemakers, Brager said, is this: “Howdowe bring in younger, legal-drinking-age folks into the category, andbuildmoreonramps into thecategory so that they can start to enjoywine? “If we don’t keep bringing people into the category, we’re going to have trouble, potentially, down the road,” Brager said. “I’d encourage us to not just wait and not just hope for younger consumers to grow up into wine. If that happens, great. But if that doesn’t happen, that kind of spells trouble. It’smuch better to be proactive.” The UnifiedWine &Grape Symposium waspresentedby theAmericanSociety for EnologyandViticultureand theCalifornia Association ofWinegrapeGrowers. (Kevin Hecteman i s an ass i stant editor of Ag Alert. He may be contacted at khecteman@cfbf.com.)
industry to replaceagingvineyards,”Bitter said of the acreage forecast. “I’mnot wor- riedaboutwhatwe’reseeinghere,withour three-year cycle of planting.” The ideal total growing acreage, he added, would be about 550,000—give or take 10,000 acres—with 3.85million tons of production. Among the unknowns, he said, are California’s impending ban on agricultur- al burning, and the status of the drought. As of Jan. 1, 2025, grape growers and others in the eight counties coveredby the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District will no longer be allowed to put old vines and trees to the torch. Bitter said that could spur growers who are thinking of pulling older vineyards to expedite the process and beat the deadline. “The alternative to burning a vineyard, whenyouremove it, isbasically todisman- tle the vineyard first,” Bitter said. “You go back in and you unbuild everything you built 30yearsago, right?Youtakeout all the metal; you cut everything down to small pieces soyoucan feed it throughachipper. There’saway toevenremove thewire from the wood and the chipping process, but all that’s very expensive compared to just lighting amatch.” Bitter added, “The bottomline is, grow- ers will be incentivized, just because of ease and efficiency, to go ahead and per-
Agricultural Market Review
Quotations are the latest available for the week ending January 28, 2022 Year Ago Week Ago Latest Week Livestock Slaughter Steers – 5-Area Average Select & Choice, 1050–1150 lbs., $ per cwt. 110-111 134-137 137 Hogs – Average hog, 51-52% lean, Iowa-Minn. market, $ per cwt. 67.02 77.88 81.12 Slaughter Lambs – $ per cwt. 125–175 lbs. National weekly live sales 158.30-175 225.15-238.75 224.79-237.50 Field crops – basis prompt shipment Barley – U.S. No. 2, $ per cwt. Truck, Stockton-Modesto-Oakdale-Turlock 10-11 No Quote No Quote Cotton – ¢ per lb., Middling 1 3/32” Fresno spot market 77.36 90.90 90.86 Corn – U.S. No. 2 yellow $ per cwt. trucked 6.73 7.68 7.82 Alfalfa Hay – $ per ton, quality*, FOB Region 1, Northern Inter-mountain No Quote 250 (G/P) No Quote Region 2, Sacramento Valley 140 (forage, 3-way) No Quote No Quote Region 3, Northern San Joaquin Valley 265-270 (P/S) 365 (S) 325 (S) Region 4, Central San Joaquin Valley No Quote No Quote No Quote Region 5, Southern California 250 (P) No Quote 325 (P) Region 6, Southeast Interior 205-220 (P) 280-300 (P/S) 260-310 (P/S) Oat Hay – $ per ton, quality*, FOB Northern California, dairy No Quote No Quote No Quote Oats – U.S. No. 2 white, $ per cwt. Statewide, trucked price No Quote No Quote No Quote
Dry Beans – Grower FOB prices Baby Limas, $ per cwt, (sacked) Large Limas, $ per cwt. (sacked) Blackeye, $ per cwt. (sacked)
No Quote No Quote No Quote
No Quote No Quote No Quote
No Quote No Quote No Quote
Rice – Milled No. 1 Head, FOB No. Calif. mills Medium grain, $ per cwt. Wheat – U.S. No. 2 or better, winter, $ per cwt. 13% protein, Los Angeles, trucked price
38-40
48-50
48-51
11.25-12.25 (No. 1 & 3) No Quote Provided by the California Farm Bureau as a service to Farm Bureau members. Information supplied by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Market News Branch. * ADF=Acid detergent fiber; (S) = Supreme/<27%ADF; (P) = Premium/27-29; (G) = Good/29-32; (F) = Fair/32-35. No Quote
14 Ag Alert February 2, 2022
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