(Wines&Vines) - Prominent wine industry accounting firm Moss-Adams hosted a post-harvest seminar featuring two industry experts Wednesday at the Marriott Napa Valley, where they made it clear how short this year’s California grape harvest was.

Mark Couchman is executive vice president and CEO of Westchester Group Investment Management. He oversees Silverado Investment Management Co. (formerly Silverado Premium Properties) and Plata Wine Partners, which produces bulk wine.

The company owns more than 10,000 acres of vineyards in Napa and Sonoma counties, the Central Coast and the San Joaquin Valley of California, selling to more than 100 wineries.

“2015 was a rude awakening,” Couchman said. “Yields were down almost everywhere in the state.”

The company has 1,685 acres of vineyards in Napa that produced in both 2014 and 2015. Yields per acre were down 17% for Cabernet Sauvignon, 44% for Pinot Noir and 46% for Sauvignon Blanc.

Merlot was decent, Couchman said, albeit off 32% after a bountiful 2014 harvest.

He said that the drop wasn’t due to the drought in Napa Valley, but to poor fruit set in the cool, wet spring. “The vines on the valley floor did better than those on the hillsides, and Carneros particularly suffered.”

Outside of Napa
In Sonoma County, things were a bit better for Westchester’s 1,963 acres of vines. Merlot was down 8% and Chardonnay down 24%, and Pinot was down 25%. “It’s tough to make money when you get down to 3 tons per acre,” he told attendees.

Monterey County, Calif., represents a “very big part” of the company’s portfolio at 5,140 acres. “It was a cold, miserable year,” Couchman laments. “Cabernet was down 86%. That represents a $2 million crop insurance payment for us.”

Chardonnay fared relatively better at 37% drop while Merlot was off only 15%, but Pinot Noir, another important variety from Monterey, was down 48%. “We went into 2014 with a big inventory of bulk wine, but that’s no longer true.”

Couchman notes that Constellation Brands, which bought hot Pinot brand Meiomi but no vineyards, thought it had an ample wine grape supply, but it may have found out otherwise. He said it’s not clear where the grapes will come from to support the brand’s ambitious growth plans.

Westchester/Silverado has 1,065 acres of vineyards in San Luis Obispo County, including Paso Robles, Calif. “It was miserable,” Couchman said. Cabernet was down 71%, and Merlot 30%.