<p>The warm weather throughout California this winter is bringing on an early desert grape deal in the Coachella Valley. As growers prepare for the season in Southern California to get underway, the late start of last year’s deal will not be characteristic of this season. Additionally, growers tell AndNowUKnow that unlike last year, they are not anticipating much of an overlap as it has been a tight year for Chile due to the series of freezes in September of 2013.</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p><img class="small-cropped-image" src="https://cdn.andnowuknow.com/legacySmallCroppedImages/grape031914rob.jpg" alt="Cropped images 031914" />Rob Spinelli of Anthony Vineyards tells us, “I anticipate the Chilean grape shippers will get out of Crimsons earlier because they know Coachella and Mexico will start early. On green grapes it should be an easy transition from Chile to Coachella and Mexico as Chile typically finishes in early to mid April and Mexico will start on perlettes in late April this year with Coachella starting on Sugraones in early May for Anthony Vineyards.”</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p>The company is looking to start around May 1st with flames and 3-5 days later with Sugraones with its organic program kicking off around the week of May 5th. There are only a few perlettes in the desert now, Spinelli notes, and they should start around April 28th. Currently, the market is doing well on red grapes from Chile with crimsons showing better size than flames. Market range is in the high $20's for big fruit. Thompsons are starting to end with about 2 to 3 weeks left and are starting show quality problems, he tells us.</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p><img class="small-cropped-image" src="https://cdn.andnowuknow.com/legacySmallCroppedImages/grape031914randy.jpg" alt="Cropped images 031914" />Randy Giumarra, Vice President of Sales, tells AndNowUKnow, "Given this year's earlier start we believe there will be some promotional opportunities on both red and green for Memorial Day but the true peak harvest weeks will be the last week of May and first two weeks of June. Growing conditions have been ideal for grapes thus far, so we're hoping for a good size crop of beautiful fruit."</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p><img class="small-cropped-image" src="https://cdn.andnowuknow.com/legacySmallCroppedImages/grape031914gordon.jpg" alt="Cropped images 031914" />Gordon Robertson, Senior VP of Sales/Marketing at Sun World, shares with us his thoughts on the quickly approaching Mexico and Coachella season. “The regions appear to be coming along nicely. We are seeing good cluster formation and we have had no significant and damaging weather events to this point. Both regions appear to be maturing 4 to 7 days earlier for Sun World, compared to last year and we are not foreseeing significant overlap from Chilean crimsons due to both weather and port issues.”</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p>Stay tuned as we follow the grape season in Coachella and Mexico.</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p><a class="btn btn-sm btn-primary col-lg-12" style="white-space: normal;" href=" http://www.giumarravineyards.com/products" target="_new"> Giumarra Vineyards</a> <a class="btn btn-sm btn-primary col-lg-12" style="white-space: normal;" href=" http://anthonyvineyards.com/our-products" target="_new"> Anthony Vineyards </a> <a class="btn btn-sm btn-primary col-lg-12" style="white-space: normal;" href=" http://www.sun-world.com/grapes" target="_new"> Sun World </a></p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">
