Wow! What a ride that was! As the winemaker for Agajanian Vineyards & Wine Company, I get to see it all – from early ripening grapes in the Central Valley to Cabernet Sauvignon in the North Coast. Our first grapes were in on August 9th and the last crush was November 13th. It was certainly […]
The end of summer is fast approaching and while harvest has started in some parts of California, not much has moved in the North Coast yet. So, before everything gets crazy, we’re offering some great deals on 2018 winegrapes with reduced prices while they last. Take advantage of these limited time offers and call Rick […]
Rick Aldine, North Coast Grape Manager Summer salutations everybody! We’re a month into summer and just a couple weeks away from the onset of Veraison. I feel that it’s been a relatively mild summer with longer periods of lingering fog and temperatures in the mid 80’s. No crazy heat yet and it still appears that […]
Rick Aldine, North Coast Grape Manager Crop estimates remain inconsistent. Some vineyard sites have set a large crop, some sites shattered pretty heavy and crop size is below normal. Many sites are still going through bloom. Generally, the crop potential seems to be at least “normal” sized and on par with 2017. The grape buying […]
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 […]
