2015 Vintage Report: Idaho Harvest Falls 50 Percent From 2014 Highs

Click Here for Original Release by the Idaho Wine Commission, 11/03/2015

Idaho grape growers celebrated the close of a tumultuous harvest season. Grape crop yields were drastically less than those of 2014. Many growers attribute this to a precipitous decline in average temperatures during November of 2014, in which hard freezes severely restricted future crop potential crop for 2015. A cooler growing season, an early bud break in Spring, damaging frosts during April, and mildew on the vines from summer rains all contributed to scant yields that were 50% off from the previous harvest. This Fall, harvest started very early and finished much earlier than projected. Still, consensus among growers was that crop quality remained high, even if yields were disappointingly low.