Rick Aldine, North Coast Grape Manager We’re halfway through May and the 2018 vintage is definitely late by at least 2 weeks. Pre-bloom crop estimates are all over the place and it’s still way too early to guess the relative size. Newer vineyards and especially head/cane-pruned look more abundant (likely due to better sun exposure […]
Rick Aldine, North Coast Grape Manager April… always a challenging month for Growers. Tax time, contract renewals, frost watch, mildew spraying. Most NorCal vineyards have now emerged from dormancy, some areas with late varietals are still at pre-leaf stage, others that popped early are out 3-5”. Our season feels 2-3 weeks late in getting started… […]
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Erin Go Bragh! Sooo… I’ve got some crow to eat. Last month, I opined about barren ski slopes, lack of rainfall and a “False Spring”. God took pity and blessed us with an additional month of winter! The Sierra snowpack is back up to low-normal, we’re getting a 2-3 day rain event every week and […]
2018 is upon us – with fog in the air and some rain in the forecasts it’s already looking better than 2017. I think it’s safe to say that as the end of the year approached most of us were simply “done with it”. 2017 was a very tough year for growers on many fronts. […]
Rick Aldine — North Coast Grape Manager Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a happier New Year to all. My sincerest thoughts to all who are affected by the October and December firestorms. 2017 definitely goes down in my history book as the most difficult growing season in history, starting wet and ending on fire. Our […]
Dear Friends, We would like to take this moment to thank you for the outpouring of concern and well wishes during this crisis with the California North Coast Wine Country wildfires. Agajanian employees and their families based in the Napa office are all safe and accounted for, but many friends and neighbors have suffered catastrophic […]
Rick Aldine, North Coast Grape Manager If you’re selling or buying grapes or bulk wine, please call me on my cell at (707) 287-6073 or email me at rick@agajanian.com OR visit our Napa office to taste through our premium bulk wine offerings. Our Napa office is located across from The Meritage Resort, 2785 Napa Valley […]
Rick Aldine – North Coast Grape Manager Howdy all. The 2017 vintage is beginning to shape up. It’s been a tough 1st half of the vintage. Labor shortages combined with lingering wet weather, soggy vineyards that were too wet to ground-spray and “woolly” unleafed canopies has created a mildew and botrytis time bomb that were […]
Rick Aldine – North Coast Grape Supply Manager Happy Father’s Day! What a challenging Spring our Growers have experienced. Heavy rainfall, unusually cool bloomtime temperatures, rain and heavy hail on June 11. The lingering effect of these Springtime challenges will continue into the summer… 2017 has not been an easy growing year. Our drought-busting rainfall […]
This time of year, I talk about two things very often. If you have been following our monthly emails for a while I suspect you could guess them. Firstly, the powdery mildew pressure is high – this may be an understatement for some growers in the northern regions of the state. Multiple spring rain events […]
