In May I had the chance to attend the 19th Annual Anderson Valley Pinot Noir Technical Conference in Boonville at the Mendocino County Fairgrounds. The annual event is sponsored by the Anderson Valley Winegrowers Association.
Each year the Technical Conference starts off with a presentation titled “Annual State of Pinot Noir,” by Glenn McCourty, Winegrowing and Plant Science Adviser for the University of California Cooperative Extension Mendocino and Lake Counties. This year, however, Mr. McCourty was ill and could not attend. In his place, Devon Jones, the Executive Director of the Mendocino County Farm Bureau, made his presentation using McCourt's slides.
As you can see, the amount of planted acreage of Pinot Noir continues to increase throughout the state. Mendocino acreage remains constant while new plantings have occurred in the Central Coast and Central Valley.
We were reminded that 2015 was not a good year for many wine regions. The Central Coast suffered after four years of drought. The compressed bloom season also had bad weather. Many California vineyards harvested 1 ton/acre or less of red varieties. Anderson Valley (on the North Coast) suffered from drought and dehydration, freezes and poor set. Overall Pinot Noir harvest was down 25%, and Russian River Valley vineyard yields were reduced by more than 45% from the previous year.
Interesting fact: Central Valley vineyards are less than half the Pinot Noir acreage compared to coastal counties, but are responsible for more (but less expensive) fruit output.
Another interesting fact: Pinot Noir is the most valuable grape grown in California (on an average per ton basis).
Warning though... The quality of Central Valley Pinot Noir is low and eventually this will damage the "fine wine" image of California Pinot Noir. We have already seen this happen to Syrah & Sangiovese, as well as Zinfandel. Keep this in mind if you are investing in Pinot Noir (it's not as important if, like me, you just enjoy consuming!)