Spotlight: Rains Could Cost 2 Counties’ Grape Growers $70 Million

Grape growers in Napa and Sonoma counties are scaling back expectations of a $470-million bumper crop after last weekend’s rain in Northern California aggravated bunch rot that was already spreading through vineyards. The weather could cost growers in the two counties $70 million and cut yields by 15% in a year they said would have been bountiful. Many growers and vintners still expect 1997 to be a good year, but the costs of a month of scattered summer storms are coming due.