not a problem here, i have yet to see or hear of mexkins pickin grapes here in NY...
Posted on 09/13/2006 3:36:14 PM PDT by calcowgirl
There's high anxiety in Wine Country as the harvest slowly gets under way.
The grape crop is late, yields are down, birds are a terrible problem and there are looming fears there won't be enough laborers to pick the crop.
"The 900-pound gorilla in the room is labor," said Fred Buonanno of Brutocao Vineyards & Cellars in Hopland and chairman of the Mendocino Winegrape and Wine Commission. "In the weeks ahead we will be tested."
Buonanno was among growers and vintners from Mendocino, Sonoma, Lake and Marin counties gathered Tuesday in Santa Rosa to provide a "state of the harvest" for the region's wine grape crop.
The harvest has barely started, with 10 percent of the estimated 420,000-ton crop in Napa, Sonoma, Lake and Mendocino counties tucked into tanks. Marin County has yet to start picking.
The good news amid the vineyard gloom is that there is a large, lush crop of pinot noir grapes. It's a grape varietal pushed to the top of the price charts by the movie "Sideways," which praises pinot as bottled poetry.
It's one of the best pinot noir crops in years, and growers are joyous at the rare, winning combination of high yields and record prices.
The yields of most other grape varietals are average to average-minus, with chardonnay, the leading varietal planted in Sonoma County, in the average-minus category.
The looming farm labor shortage is the biggest worry as the harvest heats up.
Tighter security along the border with Mexico and higher-paying jobs in construction, landscaping and other industries have reduced the farm labor work force throughout California.
Growers said the harvest won't get fast and furious until early October because grapes are maturing about 10 days later than last year.
The harvest will be tightly compressed with white and red grape varietals ripening all at once, straining nerves and tank space in winery cellars.
Vineyard manager Clay Shannon of Lake County said he can't wait until November when the last grapes are brought from the vineyards and the 2006 harvest is history.
"I hate harvest," Shannon said. "People are at their worst - frustrating, demanding and controlling."
During the first three weeks of October, growers said thousands of farmworkers will be needed to pick ripening grapes in the more than 125,000 acres of vineyards in the North Coast counties.
The saving grace is that increasingly sophisticated techniques for growing top quality grapes require a year-round work force. These resident workers will be the core harvest crews in the vineyards.
"I think there is enough labor to go around for people who manage their labor on a year-round basis," grower Steve Hill of Sonoma said.
The wine industry and the rest of California agriculture are pushing hard for a comprehensive overhaul of federal immigration laws.
Growers would like to see a guest-worker program, which would allow foreign workers to accept jobs here and return home when they finish.
"The irrational immigration policy we have now is going to destroy us," Marin County grower Mark Pasternak said Tuesday.
Buonanno of Mendocino County said he is increasing wages and looking at providing more housing in the future to keep a stable crew of vineyard workers.
Government labor figures from previous years show 1,500 extra workers are hired for the grape harvest in Sonoma County. That's a figure that may not be met this year.
Growers predict that if the workers don't come, more grapes will be harvested by machines this year than in the past. The message is clear: The region's $900 million wine grape crop will be harvested somehow, some way.
"We bought a machine. There is a way, and we will get the grapes in," said Rich Schaefers, general manager of the Mendocino Vineyard Co.
The other big worry is that the tardy crop will push the harvest later into the fall, when there's a greater chance of rain.
Growers said grapes will be particularly vulnerable to rot and ruin this year because the clusters are large and tight - prime conditions for mold and rot after heavy rain.
"With the big, tight bunches the potential for disaster is there," Pasternak said.
thats going to hurt the Pelosi's bad
I'd be happy to pay more for my grapes and less for the welfare of people whose allegiance lies elsewhere. I'd be happy to pay more for my grapes and find the emergency rooms unclogged by illegals getting freebies. I'd be happy to pay more for my grapes and not feel like a foreigner at the local BJ's Wholesale store.
Look at the bright side. If you are not already a minority, you soon will be.
not a problem here, i have yet to see or hear of mexkins pickin grapes here in NY...
More than likely you'd have foreign-grown grapes in the store instead.
If it weren't for illegal labor, machines would be doing most of the work of farming right now. May that day come sooner rather than later.
You would thing that with 12 million (govt estimates) illegals here there would be some grape workers. Jobs illegals won't do?
the jobs we are fighting for are grape pickers?
B T T T
I agree. The numbers just don't add up. They need a couple thousand workers for a month or two. That is not a staggering amount of money. I've seen statistics that say approximately 2% of illegals work in agriculture. It seems that the pay level is the issue. Pay a few more bucks an hour and they would have no shortage.
Jobs illegals won't do?
LOL! Good one! It has come to that. As long as they can find jobs elsewhere that pay more, they will go.
Crying towel, please? : )
"We bought a machine. There is a way, and we will get the grapes in," said Rich Schaefers, general manager of the Mendocino Vineyard Co.
AM I MISSING SOMETHING HERE?????
For a wine lover, I have a difficult time feeling sorry for Mendocino Vineyards or anyone else who relies on "ILLEGAL ALIENS" for their labor.
I have read many article on how the advances in technology has made it possible for ALMOST all crops to be harvested by machines.
So, the question remains, WHY are no more agricultural businesses just biting the bullet and buying machines?
Can anyone spell the word "M I S E R L Y," or "G R E E D Y?"
Nobody mentions why harvest is late, which is an exceptionally cool August.
I'm sure it must be the result of global warming somehow . . . I'll have to ask Al Gore next time I see him.
Here ya go... 
I wonder why Australian wine tends to be lower in price here in California than wine produced in California, but Australian wine has to be shipped across the planet and they've got NO ILLEGALS to pick their grapes.
Cuz they don't put a zillion percentage profit on top of their cost? Just one possibility. ;-)
Anyway, the beneficiary of last years auction proceeds was a county "free clinic." They actually interviewed the owner of one of the wineries (who was in charge of the auction); and he said "many of the vineyard employees can't afford health insurance."
As if HE had nothing to do with it! It was surreal...a bunch of employers holding a benefit to "kick in" a little towards their illegal employees' health care; of course it's perfectly fine with them that the taxpayers pick up the rest of the tab.
Farmers are either going to have to mechanize, hire domestic workers, or find another business to get into. We can no longer afford their cheap labor and the more they they whine the more attention they draw to the enormous damage illegal immigration is doing to this country.
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