Frost hits northern California

Lest anyone think that all California growing seasons are easy and uniform, 2008 comes along to dispel the myth.

In what many Northern California vintners are calling the worst spring conditions since 1971, vineyards in Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino and Lake counties suffered frost damage in late March and April 19-20 that is expected to reduce the crop by 10 to 15 per cent, and cost the industry millions of dollars.

Overnight temperatures in the high 20s F (around -2 degrees C) burned tender shoots on vines that were not frost-protected – and even on some that had either...