LATimes

Thursday, April 12, 2001 | Print this story

Cold Costing Grape Growers Millions

SANTA ROSA, Calif.--The worst frost to hit North Coast grape growers in three decades has caused millions of dollars in damage to vineyards. Growers have been staying up all night for the past week to battle the plunging temperatures, using wind machines and irrigation systems in an effort to ward off frost and avoid damage to vulnerable new shoots.

"So much for global warming," Sebastopol grape grower Warren Dutton said after surveying frost damage in neighboring vineyards. Dutton, who has been growing grapes for nearly 40 years in west Sonoma County, said he's never seen so much vineyard damage from spring frosts. "There's damage on hillside vineyards where there's never been damage before, at least in the 37 years I've been farming out here," he said. Sonoma County Agricultural Commissioner John Westoby said there is no official estimate of damage. But the Santa Rosa Press Democrat said last year's grape harvest in Sonoma, Lake, Napa and Mendocino counties was worth $836 million, so just a 10 percent loss would cost growers more than $80 million. The Carneros area of Napa and Sonoma counties and the Russian River Valley have been among the hardest-hit areas. Temperatures plummeted to 19 degrees in the Pope Valley and were in the 20s in other valleys. Frost is lethal for grapes at this time of year, when vulnerable shoots that will provide the fall harvest begin to sprout. Spraying water on vines when temperatures drop is the most common method of protecting vines. The water freezes and surrounds the buds in ice, maintaining a constant 32 -degree temperature and keeping the sensitive new growth safe. "I've been up nine days straight working on frost protection," said Mark Neal, a Napa Valley vineyard manager and former president of the North Coast Grape Growers. "It's the worst frost season since the early '70s when we had 21 straight nights of frost."

-- Anonymous, April 12, 2001