It was a very demoralizing year for most vineyard people, and me, definitely.
Since we stopped making wine, we have been trying to find buyers for our fruit or the entire vineyard. Since the whole world is oversupplied and demand is dropping, there are large quantities of excellent homeless grapes. Vineyards that supplied multiple wineries for decades and had a waiting list of customers five years ago now have many acres feeding birds this winter.
If you don’t have a market, the logical thing is to minimize losses by reducing your inputs as much as possible.
Our biggest input by far is labor. We spend thousands of dollars every year to help with shoot thinning and leaf removal. It is our way to control Powdery Mildew, which is the big problem, and most of our pesticide use is to control PM.
We reduced our normal three passes per vine to one. We only had buyers for about 15% of the crop. The vineyard books are definitely red.
The same strategy in 2025 probably would have been fine. It was a year of low-pressure conditions. Unfortunately, in 2026 we had conditions very favorable to Powdery Mildew. Growers of susceptible crops like cherries and grapes used 150-200% of normal fungicides. We were hit hard in most cultivars, and the few that didn’t have PM had no buyers. Really beautiful Sémillon, but no interest. Couldn’t even give them away! There are just too many homeless grapes out there.
The less-affected varieties folks wanted had enough leaf damage to really change photosynthesis and the development of the phytochemicals that give wine its aroma molecules. I told our customers I couldn’t sell them those grapes in good faith. If they wanted, they could come pick them, no charge. They trusted my opinion and passed. No market for anything less than really good.
Another really bad year for most crops. I don’t know any farm that expects to end the year with a black number for profit. Some minor fruit crops did all right; some peaches were sold at a good price.
Apples, pears, and grapes were all losses; some cherry blocks hit the market when prices were good, but most growers were in the red.
There is a reason Washington started a program focused on depression and suicide prevention for farmers. I’m definitely feeling bummed out, fortunately not going to lose the farm. But now I’m debating pulling our vines out, as many have done. It is also a lot of work and expense. The dilemma for most landowners is what to grow. Can they find any crop that will break even?
Beef anyone?
We are starting our list for August 2027. We are increasing the number of cattle, but we need a commitment by March to buy what we need. Check out (Where’s the Beef?). I expect the price won’t change much, hopefully down a little, but it all depends on what the price of cows are in March.
