Napa Valley growers query the virtues of hang time

The Napa Valley Grape Growers held their most popular seminar ever on 10 jan in the Native Sons Hall in St Helena crammed for four hours with almost 600 growers and vintners. The reason so many were attracted to this less than glamorous venue was the subject being discussed in a public and commercially engaged forum for the first time: Hang Time: A Discussion of its Effects on Vine Health and Vineyard Yields.

The recent fashion for delaying the harvest until grapes have started to shrivel and Brix levels rise above 26 (a reading virtually unknown 20...