Prior to the current season, the earliest start date for grapes in the San Joaquin Valley for Pandol Bros. in Delano, CA, was June 21. That was in 2004, and this year “we expect to beat that by two to three days,” said John Pandol, director of special projects, May 27. “We are tracking for the earliest start in Arvin in our company’s history.”

He attributes the early start to “basically an accumulation of heat units.” A “short, severe winter” was followed by a warm early spring.

Meanwhile, the company’s Sonora, Mexico grape program was running ahead of schedule. As of Monday, May 18, “Mexico was approaching 30 percent finished,” Pandol said. Normally as of that date, between two percent and 15 percent of the grapes in Mexico have been harvested.

Even with the San Joaquin Valley deal being early, by the time it starts, “the desert grapes from Sonora will be largely finished … except for a few late varieties,” he said. “We see an earlier finish in the desert, so we see an orderly transition.”

In its San Joaquin Valley program, Pandol Bros. tends to be heavier to the fall season than to summer, Pandol said. “For the early seasons, we have Flames” as well as Sugraones, Thompsons and a new proprietary green seedless variety called Sugar Crunch.

Pandol Bros. will have an increase in Sugraone volume this year from an outside grower, he said.

“We are looking at rolling out Sugar Crunch in the second half of July,” he said. In previous seasons “we have had prototype quantities of it. We grafted an acre, so we will have a little more to play with now from a farming point of view and a marketing point of view. It is still a small quantity, but if it keeps working, we will end up planting more.”

In recent years, Pandol Bros. has planted a fairly large acreage of Sweet Celebration and Autumn King. The Sugar Crunch “will probably be the next set of plantings,” he said.

Pandol Bros. grows a number of mid-season varieties which some growers bring in early by various cultural practices. “Generally we have chosen not to try to force the mid-season varieties early,” Pandol said. “We tend to go later with them.”

In packaging, “the grape bags continue to evolve,” Pandol said. Pouch bags have become standard, but they, too, are still evolving. “Certain retailers who embraced the pouch bag but wanted no graphics now demand graphics.” On the other hand, “we had another major retail chain” that “has decided they don’t like the pouch bag and they want the old bag with no graphics.”

Most people in the trade agree that the pouch bag has improved merchandising of grapes, but opinions differ as to why. Pandol said he believes it has a lot to do with the fact that “it forces retail clerks to display the grapes in an orderly fashion where they don’t get damaged as much.”