Sonoma County vineyards have started their annual grape harvest which proceeds the year's fall crush. Harvest season begins around the beginning of August depending on the ripening progress of the each individual crop. So far this harvest season has seen a large increase in the quantity of the grape crop compared to last years. The wine and grape industry reached record prices last year and this year's larger than expected crop could cause the grape market price to tumble significantly. Several factors are responsible for the recent unexpected quantity of harvested crops so far this season such as weather patterns, location, type of grape and the size of last season's harvest.
Weather patterns, in particular, tend to either help of hinder grape crops especially during the spring blooming season. Location is also a key factor when determining the affects of weather conditions on certain varietals. The Sonoma County Wine grape Commission has released the organizations expectation regarding this year's grape harvest which is 200,000 tons, up 18% from last years meager crop of 169,000 tons. The commission has said that they don't expect this year's harvest to surpass the 2005 crop which totalled 216,000 tons which is good news for vineyards still waiting to harvest and sell their fruit. Most wine grape producers agree that this year will prove to be an interesting grape season while most wineries are excitedly awaiting this falls first crush.
