West Tenn. grape growers have good harvest despite wet spring
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JACKSON, Tenn. — For West Tennessee grape growers, harvest has been good this year — but it wasn’t an easy start. Grapes thrive when days are hot and dry with cool nights. “Our harvest was probably down a third,” said Carl O’Cain, owner of Century Farm Winery. “Maybe where in East Tennessee, where it was wetter and cooler, they’re down half their normal harvest.” The wet conditions made spraying the vines, to protect against fungus and diseases, pricey and time consuming. “Probably got more investing in this year’s harvest than past years,” O’Cain said. “Sometimes it’s a wash. You get a little bit more grapes, but then it costs you a little more to produce. But that’s farming.” Despite the wet conditions to start the season, grape growers in West Tennessee still said they had above average harvests this year. O’cain said although this year may not have been his best year, his harvest was still up from last year. “The price of the grapes were stabilized at a nice price. All in all, it balanced out to a good year for us.” He says from his 13 acres of vineyards, 29 tons of grapes were harvested for wine and an additional 5 tons were sold. “We had about 16 tons last year, so this year almost doubled it.”
Although harvest was good for West Tennessee, the price of wine is not affected.
