Afternoon Brief, September 6th

Renowned International Winemaker Files Lawsuit Against Napa County over Denial of Water Rights: Jayson Woodbridge, owner and winemaker of one of the world’s most sought-after wines, has filed suit against the County of Napa after the county refused to issue permits for water wells on Woodbridge’s vineyard properties, in violation of state and federal law...

The California Department of Food and Agriculture’s preliminary 2021 crush figure, published February 10th, was in line with our pre-harvest projection at 3,613,009 tons. This represents a 6.1% increase from 2020’s small 3.4 million tons but is still below what would be considered a normal crop. The uptick versus the prior year was mainly due to larger crops than many expected in Lodi – which contributed over 100,000 more tons than the year before – and the Central Coast. The North Coast was a mixed picture (Napa and Sonoma were up, Lake and Mendocino down) while the southern Central Valley continued its downward tonnage trend over the past five years, likely due to lack of water.  The leading varietals by tonnage, Chardonnay (+14.5% to 616,536 tons) and Cabernet (+18.3% to 590,249), both saw gains versus 2020. Pinot Noir experienced the biggest uptick (+29.6% to 273,728 tons), with Monterey delivering its largest Pinot Noir crop ever. Of the major varietal