California”™s wine country is facing an existential crisis due to the erratic weather that has impacted the Napa and Sonoma valleys.
According to a Bloomberg report, this year”™s grape wine season began with a deep frost that was followed by drought and heat. As a result, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is predicting this year”™s state”™s wine-grape production will decline by roughly 4% this year to 3.5 million tons and down 18% from the 2018 peak of 4.29 million tons.
“A significant freeze used to be something we”™d talk about every four years,” said Karissa Kruse, president of the Sonoma County Winegrowers in Santa Rosa, California. “Now, we are dealing with frost, flood and heat events in the span of every two months.”
