Harvest 2024 in Napa Valley and Sonoma County - A Halftime Report. I talked with vintners and growers throughout Napa and Sonoma and wrote up this Halftime Vintage Report. 2024 Harvest Halftime Report in Napa and Sonoma
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Very interesting, thanks for the report.
Incidentally, I love Sam Lando’s wines, so nice to see a quote in there from him. Pinot noir has never been something that moved me, but his are exactly my style. They’ve got an “earthy” sort of “richness” that is fantastic and, to my reckoning, a steal of a deal. If that at all sounds of interest to folks, you should get on his list here: https://www.landowines.com/
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I’m seeing a lot of “Grapes for Sale” signs in my daily travels. Chuck Giovanetti told me the other day that his vineyard manager said lots of wineries have cancelled grape contracts with growers this year. He felt fortunate that St Francis actually raised the price per ton they were paying him.
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The amount of unsold/available fruit is staggering.
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Thats unfortunate. Seems lkke quality is pretty good?
Why do you think this is occurring?
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I would think it’s multiple things. Glut, soft market, 2020 losses finally hitting home, ‘23 was a Vintage of the Century…
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Vintage of the millenium* 
Thanks for sharing, will be interesting to hear what the final “like xxxx vintage” comparison will be.
As for the unsold grapes, tragic for the growers. Feel for them.
A friend shared this screenshot a few days ago. I suppose appellation doesn’t inherently tell you fruit quality 
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These prices make me feel much better about spending $250 on a bottle.
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Trader Joe’s shelves will be full of Napa cab.
St Helena looks pretty expensive 
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As others have pointed out, there is a tremendous amount of great fruit available around the state - and from top notch appellations. Regardless of the quality of the fruit and this vintage, it is a challenging time for so many winemakers out there, and many that I know are cutting back this year.
Will this affect the higher end producers that are often mentioned here, especially in Napa? Most likely not - but it does offer opportunities for some to expand or new folks to ‘jump in’, getting access to some fruit that they normally would not have access to.
A slight positive for the industry at this point is that yields have been lower than anticipated in many cases - not sure if @Adam_Lee is seeing that up North, but that has been the case down here in SBC, with varieties like Sauv Blanc and Pinot thus far.
Cheers
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Napa Cab is cheaper per pound than the grapes at Ralph’s?
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Another California Vintage where “California” designated grocery store wines or $20- $40 Appelation wines having fruit sourced from some very nice well respected vineyards. Think Joel Gott California Cabernet with a good chunk of Oakville, Rutherford, Howell Mountain, etc. fruit in the bottle for $18. Same for pinot, chard, etc. Unfortunate for the growers, but fortunate for the consumers.
Our sauv blanc up about 10-15% this year
Larry,
Santa Barbara is definitely down compared to what I am seeing in the rest of the state.
Adam Lee
Clarice Wine Company
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I’d say yields are down about 10% from last year. It was an intense heat here in Aug and beginning of Sept, so that normally discombobulates grapes a bit - they go into survival mode rather than the preferred slower ripening mode we got in 2023. I’ve gotten some whacky pH/brix numbers this year and it’s just par for the course in hot vintages. That said, the fruit has looked better than ever visually - beautiful color and not a ton of problems, etc.
The glut we’ve covered in so many other threads here, but it’s real. Never been more fruit available, so much unsold. I just got offered 5T of Napa Cab for a song and a dance, whole vineyard unsold…
A lot of smaller wineries packing it in, too. Gonna get worse before it gets better.
Wines are too expensive.
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