The rain

I love the rain. Well, I love it during the late fall and winter, which is when we expect to see it here in Northern California. Of course, my concern for grapes has biased my opinion a little.


So here's the big question - does rain in May cause complications with the grapes?

It depends. Like everything else in growing grapes and making wine, it depends. I know it sounds like a cop out, but it's true. Here's why.

You see, we got a late start to bud break this year because of an extended cool and rainy season. As a result, bloom hasn't happened yet. If we were in the middle of bloom, this rain today could be disastrous. If rain, especially heavy rain or hail, happens during bloom it can seriously effect the number of grapes on the clusters and create what we call shatter.

Shatter is when clusters have grapes that are both pollinated and unpollinated. In most cases, these clusters will later be cut off. If the vineyard workers have to cut off too many of the clusters this can put the vine out of balance or in the worst case, not produce enough tonnage. These are all things that could have happened today, if it hadn't been so cool and rainy this year.

So, the good news is that we are in the clear, so far. There's always a chance for more rain later, but we're pretty lucky here in California. Unlike other regions of the world, like the famed Bordeaux and Burgundy, California rarely has catastrophic rain and hail events. For the most part, it's tough to make bad wine here. In case I mislead you with the last statement, it's also tough to make excellent wine as well - so don't be fooled.

We'll keep crossing our fingers and doing our "no rain" dances from here until we have picked the grapes and they are resting safely (relatively) in their tanks and barrels. Until then, there will be many worried and stressed individuals in the wine industry. Good thing we all have wine in our glasses to de-stress at the end of the day.


Cheers!