An early look at the San Joaquin Valley grape season

Overview of grapes from California in the U.S. market, complemented by charts from Agronometrics. Original published on May 20, 2025.

 California grape growers are feeling fortunate to come into another grape growing season with good moisture levels. “We’re pretty optimistic for the season. This is our third year in a row of good water thanks to the water over the winter and snowpack we’ve had,” says Jim Beagle of Grapery. “We’re feeling a bit spoiled to have a few years in a row like this.”

In turn, as it heads into the main part of the California grape growing season which gets underway as an industry around July 1st, there are healthy vines and plants seeing good growth. “We have good bunch counts at this stage,” he says, noting its coming out of bloom and berry set. “There’s lots of potential for a big, high-quality table grape crop if normal growing conditions continue.”

Source: USDA Market News via Agronometrics.
(Agronometrics users can view this chart with live updates here)

Source: USDA Market News via Agronometrics.
(Agronometrics users can view this chart with live updates here)

Timing looks similar to 2024

With the good growing weather there, that’s also helped avoid excessive disease pressure. “As for timing, when the bloom is finishing we start to have a good idea on the timing and we’re there right now and it’s looking like last year’s timing,” says Beagle.

Harvest for Grapery will begin around July 15th-20th with its Candy Snaps variety of grapes.

The News in Charts is a collection of stories from the industry complemented by charts from Agronometrics to help better tell their story.

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