No, it’s not the weather that may be wreaking havoc on the 2007 wine harvest in the Napa Valley. Not this time. Instead, regional winemakers are fretting about a possible invasion by the dreaded glassy-winged sharpshooter.
According to a story in today’s Napa Valley Register, an adult sharpshooter was discovered Thursday on a batch of plants arriving at a Napa nursery from Souther California. The Register notes this is the closest the sharpshooter is known to have come to the prized Napa Valley wine region, where it could rapidly spread Pierce’s disease amongst the acres and acres of grapes:
In June 2004, agricultural officials found and eradicated a sharpshooter infestation near the factory outlet stores in Vacaville — 30 miles east of Napa County. Agricultural authorities say that’s the closest the pest has come to invading Napa County.
TechTags Plugin [ Napa | Napa Valley | grape | wine | winery | harvest | sharpshooter ]
About the Author
TrevR has written 706 posts on The Cork Board. He was born and aged in the Napa Valley and has a passion for wine, writing and social media, which led him to co-found this blog in early 2007. Follow him on Twitter @TrevR.
