Bay Area wineries need oak barrels right now. But thousands are missing

Barrels, which cost roughly $1,000 each, are just the latest supply-chain issue affecting the wine industry, as delays have persisted throughout the pandemic. Wineries have already struggled to getmaterials like glassand corks to bottle their wines.

The most pressing issue for those waiting on barrels is a lack of space for bringing in fruit. Each winery has a limited number of tanks to use. When a fresh wave of harvested grapes is brought in and needs processing, they typically move some of the wine in tanks into barrels. This year’s harvest is expected to be compressed, said Linda Hanson, associate winemaker at Hanzell Vineyards in Sonoma, with most of the fruit ripening at the same time and coming into the winery all at once.

“We could end up with no place to put grapes,” she said. The solution? “I have a bathtub at home,” she joked.

The delay in receiving barrels was compounded byprotests against California’s AB5 labor law, which shut down the Port of Oakland for five days in July. Port of Oakland Maritime Director Bryan Brandes said it will take about four weeks to make up for that lost time. Meanwhile, ships in port are not leaving the docks to make room for new ones. Brandes said 40% of cargo coming into the Port of Oakland sits at the dock for more than nine days before being unloaded. Pre-COVID, the average was about three days.

Ron Angold, vice president of sales and operations at Napa’s Barrel Associates International, said wait times for his barrels have been much longer: 32 days on average, compared with eight last year.

朱莉·Guffy总经理桶生产商联邦铁路局ncois Freres USA, said that in July, the company had 42 containers — each holding roughly 150 barrels — at the Oakland port, but not a single one moved through it. Francois Freres typically has delivered 80% of its barrels to clients by Aug. 15 each year, Guffy said. By Aug. 15 this year, it had delivered less than 20%.

Ships aren’t leaving the port because some companies aren’t picking up their cargo due to factors like a shortage of labor and warehouses being overloaded with inventory, Brandes said. While the port can charge customers a fee for cargo overstaying its time at the terminal, those fees aren’t high enough to motivate them to act, Brandes said. And legally, the port can’t force them to pick up their cargo.

It appears the ongoing problem may affect the 2023 vintage as well. Significant improvement likely won’t occur until the middle of next year, he said.

Like many other Bay Area wineries, Hanzell ferments Chardonnay in a barrel instead of the traditional tank to create a rounder flavor profile and creamier texture. Each vintner selects new French oak barrels that are customized to the winery’s house style, but Hanzell hasn’t yet received its Chardonnay barrels.

Time is of the essence, too, as the Chardonnay grapes are ripe and ready to come off the vines.

“For over 14 years, we’ve been using different barrels and figuring out which are better for Chardonnay and which are better for Pinot Noir,” said Hanson, whose backup plan is to use the barrels she does have on hand — barrels meant for Pinot Noir. “It’s probably a subtle thing, but when you’re making high-end Chardonnay, it’s the details that count.”

Jennifer Higgins, winemaker at Healdsburg’s Lambert Bridge, hasn’t received her Chardonnay barrels either. In the meantime, she said, she’ll have to put the Chardonnay in 1- or 2-year-old barrels and transfer it over to the new wood once it arrives. It’s not an ideal solution.

“任何时候你搬东西, you’re opening it up for oxidation and losing aromatics,” she said. “You want to try to preserve that freshness. It likes to stay where it ferments.”

After experiencing barrel delays in 2021, wineries and suppliers like Barrel Associates and Francois Freres tried to hedge their bets this year and ordered barrels much earlier than usual.

“None of us wanted to live that nightmare again,” Angold said. The company had 70% of its orders leave France by the end of May, compared with 30% in 2021.

But the company’s foresight hasn’t paid off. Pre-pandemic, Angold estimated that it typically took barrels 45 days to arrive from France and be released from the port. In 2021, the average nearly doubled to about 80 days. This year, Angold said, he’s looking at over 120 days. He has received less than 5% of his inventory thus far.

Several industry players, including Barrel Associates, have voiced their frustrations to the office of Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena. Last week, the congressmansent a letterto Gov. Gavin Newsom offering his assistance. “I have been told that between 20,000 and 30,000 barrels are waiting to be released,” it said, adding that the issue could have a “devastating effect” on “California’s wine community.”

As harvest season progresses, most wineries will need their new barrels for storing and aging red wines once fermentation has completed. For most, that’s at least a few weeks away. Butclimate changeis leading to grapes ripening earlier, and vintners say they’re not getting status updates from the port. Angold called the port “a black hole.” With more than 50 Francois Freres containers still awaiting release, Guffy is especially concerned.

“Every year we have to adapt to what Mother Nature throws at us,” she said. “Winemakers have become very savvy, whether it’s rain, smoke taint and now the delays at the port. I almost hate to think what could be next.”