Oregon wine grape harvest falls off

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, November 4, 2004

SALEM, Ore. – With volumes half of normal and with isolated incidents of yield loss to disease and birds, this year’s Willamette Valley wine grape harvest is ranking as one of the lowest in recent history.

Oregon’s total wine grape tonnage is expected to be far less than the 26,000 tons projected by Oregon Agricultural Statistic’s Service in an August survey and well below 2003’s record harvest of 24,000 tons.

The biggest factor contributing to low yields, most vintners agreed, was poor set at harvest caused by rains during bloom. Several other factors surfaced during a survey of vineyard managers, including a never-before-seen necrosis, higher than normal damage from birds, and mildew.

Joe Dobbes, winemaker and owner of Marquam Hill Vineyards in Molalla, left 40 percent of his grapes on the vine due to mildew.

“It’s been a very disappointing year,” he said. “The high humidity this summer did not do my grapes any good.”

Dobbes, who normally produces pinot noir, riesling and pinot gris, was able to salvage enough grapes to make a 2004 riesling, but he has abandoned plans of bottling a 2004 pinot noir.

“It’s really been a heartbreak of a year,” he said. “Mother Nature was not kind.”

Dobbes plans to make a pinot gris from grapes he purchased. Other vintners couldn’t find any.

“We tried to buy some pinot gris at the last minute and we couldn’t get any, which is unheard of,” said Pat Dudley of Bethel Heights Vineyard in Salem. “There was an opportunity to sell grapes this year.”

Joe Olexa, winemaker and owner of Ankeny Vineyard in Salem, normally sells 75 percent of his grapes. This year he increased that despite the fact his yields were down 50 percent across the board.

“I could’ve sold another 40 tons of pinot gris, but I didn’t have any,” he said. “People at the end were looking for pinot noir, and that hasn’t happened for many years.”

Olexa said his yields were the lowest in 20 years.

Rudy Marchesi, president and winemaker of Montinore Estate in Forest Grove, said yields were down 50 percent in pinot noir and nearly two-thirds in pinot gris, dropping from an average of 3 tons an acre to 1 ton an acre.