https://www.sacbee.com/food-drink/article316603923.html
Beckstoffer vinyards bulldozing
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“I’ve been doing this for 28 years, … and people are saying this is just never seen before — how drastic and fast things turned (for the wine industry),” said Brandon Axell, Beckstoffer’s executive vice president of farming. “…It’s incredibly hard for me.”
Mr. Axell: Have you thought about how much harder this might be for your vineyard workers who are now jobless?
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
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But the $100/acre Napa Co. water levy was sinking his business. Why isn’t he pulling there?
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My feel is that Lake County as an AVA is a hard sell for the typical consumer, especially for Cabernet. And if the juice isn’t wearing it’s regional flag… it will be trapped by the ceiling of bulk wine prices, and limited demand. I feel like that area only got warm enough for consistent ripening somewhat recently (climate change etc.) and never built up a good reputation like Sonoma for Burgundy varietals or Napa for Bordeaux ones.
Warmth is not a problem in Lake County. It’s geographically isolated, poor, and in some cases difficult to develop due to very challenging soils (some growers up in Lake County like to joke that they’re all no-till…because you’d destroy your equipment with chunks of obsidian). The fruit can be very good and tends to be inexpensive because land is cheap and the region has no caché - but that’s in large part because no one wants to go to Lake County. It has a bad reputation socially. I say that as a person who works up there occasionally (happily), and whenever I tell people I’m going up to Lake they ask me why I would go there. It’s kind of annoying but says something about the image.
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So you’re saying I shouldn’t start a winery in Shasta Co?
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WE have grapes in lake county. It has a certain stigma. It is in the middle of nowhere but so is many areas of mendocino county. We used to have chard and no one touched it until we sold on the bulk market as they could taste the final product. Now everything we have is sauv blanc and its pretty good quality in my opinion
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most of the best value sub $20 Californian wines I’ve had the last few years have been lake county