By P. Milliren
Like many other vineyard owners, Chris Decklemann of Meridian Estate Vineyards is in a race against the birds and the weather. Across the agricultural spectrum, crops are late this fall including the wine grapes in the Willamette Valley.
“It was so cold for so long that bloom did not happen in June like most years, but in July this year instead,” Deckelmann said. “It is site specific, but the cold wet spring didn’t do us well. The quality and the quantity of the grapes are down.”
Most years, Decklemann brings in 500 ton of wine grapes off his 80-acre vineyard. This year Decklemann estimates that number will be down. Way down. His crop however, if it fails, is insured.
Vineyard owners usually begin their harvest in September and finish in October. This year, they started harvesting grapes in mid-October.
“With the weather we had this year, we had to spray twice, now there are three times as many migratory birds as normal, the price of the grapes is down, labor has gone up in price and tanks at the wineries are full,” said Pete Paradis of Paradis Vineyards who raises pinot noir, pinot gris and muscat varieties. With the lateness of the grape harvest, migratory birds are on the move and are eating the grapes.
On behalf of all the vineyard owners, Paradis would like to publicly apologize to their neighbors for all the noise that is being created to keep the foraging birds at bay.
“We are sorry about all the noise from the cannons, the fireworks and the shotgun blasts. With the migratory birds being so bad, we are trying to save our crops, but we are also trying alternatives, such as electronic bird distress calls,” Paradis said. “The birds cannot be killed or injured, so the vineyards have to resort to use scare tactics to keep the birds away instead.”
According to the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife, law protects all migratory birds such as the North American Robin whose diet consists of grubs, fruits and berries.
Local growers said forecasts call for a poor harvest because the sugar content in the grapes is low. However, they added, the crop still must be harvested.
At both vineyards, workers are busy cutting the grape clusters by hand.
At the Paradis vineyard, the harvest is a multi-generational event. Lawrence Paradis, 88, is the patriarch of the family. He has helped his son Pete with the harvest for more than 20 years. He drives the tractor carrying totes of grapes to the holding area. The youngest Paradis member is 9-year-old Jori, named after the Jory soils that the grapes are grown on. She pitches in while learning the ropes.
“Grapes are like tomatoes, sensitive to frosts. It is going to be interesting. A wait-and-see game,” Deckelmann said. “It is a race between the birds, the weather and getting the harvest in.”
