From the Fields: Andrew Forchini, Sonoma County winegrape grower and sheep rancher

By Andrew Forchini
Sonoma County winegrape grower and sheep rancher

I’m pleased with the rain we have received since October. We’ve had almost 9 inches. I like seeing the ground saturated with abundant rainfall prior to the grapevines going dormant. We have abundant grass for the sheep, so that makes my life a lot easier. And lamb prices seem decent. 

I thought it was a good grape-growing season in Healdsburg. It didn’t get too hot. We only had maybe a handful of days over a hundred degrees. The yield seemed average. The quality was good. 

It was very rough on everybody trying to sell uncontracted grapes. It was hard to find a buyer. If you’re lucky and have your crops sold, you’re doing well. But if you don’t have your crops sold or have half your crops sold, it’s very challenging times. Permanent crops such as winegrapes require work year-round, and if your crop is not sold, there are very difficult decisions to be made as far as how much money you want to put in the vineyard. If you neglect your vineyard and cut costs, then you’re going to reduce overall vine health, which is not good for the future.

We’re turning our compost piles. I make a lot of compost for my vineyard to improve soil health, water retention and organic matter. We’re waiting for a break in the weather to go out and apply our compost. We’re getting ready to begin pruning. We’re removing some vineyards. We removed a percentage of acreage this growing season that we couldn’t sell. We’re going to remove a little more because having an open field makes more financial sense and gives me more of an option of what I could do with my land. 

Because the winegrape market is slow, to keep my crew busy five, six days a week, we started another company where we work for customers, and that’s been good for us. We do land management, property repair and maintenance, and landscaping for customers who have large estates and a lot of projects.