Wine and marijuana have been linked culturally since the 1960s, when hippies discovered that pot pairs better with wine than with hard liquor.
Now they're linked agriculturally as well. There's an AP story today about Yakima Valley vineyards growing marijuana instead of grapes.
Economically, it makes some sense. Wine grapes are a fickle crop. This year, for example, frost in Napa and Sonoma Counties appears to have cut grape crop sizes by about 20 percent. Vineyard owners also have to worry about what effect smoke from the California wildfires will have on the taste of their grapes.
Vagaries of the wine market send grape prices up and down: if you have Pinot Noir planted right now, you're in good shape, but if you have Merlot, you might be begging for a buyer. Yet it takes about four years for a newly grafted vine to produce grapes, so vineyard owners can't easily switch to follow the market.
Marijuana, on the other hand, is a weed. A farmer can grow a new crop every year, presumably adapting whatever the variety of the moment is.
How about the prices? While premium Napa Valley Cabernet might sell for $5000 a ton, most farmers get considerably less. In Yakima Valley, $1500 a ton is a good price.
According to the Marijuana Price Guide, marijuana sells in Washington for $11 a gram. That's about $10 million per ton. Really makes Screaming Eagle seem affordable, doesn't it?
I'm comparing wholesale and retail, and that's not right, but unfortunately I don't know wholesale marijuana prices because there is no public California Pot Growers' Association website. But if you want to compare retail prices, a $500 bottle of wine costs roughly 65 cents a gram, or a little more than 1/20th the price of the pot sold on the street. In other words, skateboarders are peddling a product that's about 20 times as costly -- and thus 20 times as profitable to the farmer -- as Screaming Eagle.
Of course, you don't risk arrest by growing Cabernet Franc. No wonder that the AP story on the Yakima Valley pot vineyards suggests most are run by absentee owners.
The DEA claims they can find these vineyards by checking water-use records, as marijuana needs to be irrigated more than premium wine grapes.
It does make one wonder: why grow only one or the other? Why not use an established winegrape vineyard in the heart of Mendocino County, for example, to grow a few marijuana plants? While I'm not a viticulturalist, it would seem that the weed in the vineyard wouldn't hurt the grapes -- current theory is to leave weeds alone in the vineyard to bring the soil into balance. And besides, at $10 million a ton for the pot, maybe the farmer would start wondering if the grapes are detracting from the weed.
Puts those "no trespassing" signs on vineyards in a new light, doesn't it?
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3 comments:
Sorry to disappoint, but the vineyards in question are low value Concord Grape (think Welch's) vineyards not high value Wine Grape vineyards. Only on the East Coast do they make wine out of Concord grapes.
Thanks for pointing that out. If pot is a better cash crop than Syrah, it's even that much better than Concord. Gotta add, the last time I was in NY wine country I had a most delicious Concord grape pie.
Per your comment on 365Wines - that is the great thing about wine, there is one for every palate! I have another bottle and will try it again in the fall. You can check out Wine Bid to see if they have any. The point of Wines Til Sold out is that they post a wine and sell it at discount until it is sold out, then post another wine until it is sold out, so it is not the best place to look for a wine, as they only post 1 at a time. You should sign up for their alerts though, as they posted the Thumbprint again a few days ago.
Best of luck trying to find it!
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