A recent report in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat newspaper has indicated that this year’s grape harvest could be a lot earlier than usual, setting wineries scrambling to get ready. As the summer days stretch long and hot, and grapes thicken with sugar on the vine, wineries are clamoring to ensure they’ll have enough space in tanks and barrels to fit the fruits of an early harvest. Growers anticipate the grapes will be ready for picking two to three weeks earlier than usual, and many are expecting the size of the harvest will be average or larger. This has some wineries scrambling to add capacity in their storage rooms, or to book additional space in the custom crush facilities that dot Wine Country. Finding the space to crush the grapes and turn them into wine was a challenge in 2012, when a record crop sent more than 267,000 tons of grapes from Sonoma County vineyards into the wineries. Some of those wines are still aging in tanks and barrels, and have yet to find their way into bottles. Major name brand wine companies are expanding their cooperage capabilities by adding barrels or tanks. Wineries that don’t have enough room in their own facilities also turn to custom crush facilities that handle the winemaking process, but they’re running out of time to line up the dwindling available space. Custom crush facilities, which are busy pumping wine out of tanks and barrels and into bottles to make way for the 2013 harvest, are finding a lot of demand for any available space. If people that need custom crush space haven’t confirmed it or reserved it, they may see a problem down the road in the next couple of months. This year, if the crop holds, if people are thinking they’ll just do custom crush later, they may be surprised that there’s not as much space as they think. Also, the price may be higher than they thought due to the early, larger harvest. Oak barrel companies also have been busy filling orders and have been challenged to keep up with demand, especially for its barrels made with 4-year-old wood. Last year one major American cooperage, could not offer these barrels, and had to close all the sales in July. One of the primary uses of Skolnik stainless steel wine barrels is to store overage or excess wine. Given the early harvest and what many believe is a sizeable crop demand for stainless steel wine barrels will be high. We encourage our customers to place their orders now, as the harvest will be here sooner that most have planned.
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