Scattaglia Growers & Shippers LLC in Traver, CA, grows, packs and ships a full line-up of table grape varieties in the central San Joaquin Valley, from early season Flames to late season Autumn Kings, but proprietary varieties exclusive to SGS are an increasingly important part of the company’s grape program.

“We continue to get great response [from customers] with our fall lineup of red and black seedless, and we continue to increase our acreage, especially with the SGS Red variety,” said Louis Scattaglia, managing partner.

“It has great holding qualities, large size, full red color. We’ve really got great response from the retail sector with that grape, and we continue to add acreage of that to keep up with demand.”

Other proprietary SGS varieties are soon to be introduced. “We are increasing our green collection with proprietary varieties that are not named yet,” Scattaglia said. “There are three unnamed varieties that we are just planting now. We are adding acreage in that category.” Once in production, the earliest of the three will be available mid- to late July, and the latest will carry “all the way through December.”

For the current season, SGS expected to begin harvesting around July 15, which is about a week earlier than last year, he said July 9. “We will start with our Flame seedless and Summer Royal black seedless.”

Quality and size “look exceptionally good at this stage,” he said.

In the red seedless category, “we will be following up Flames with Crimsons and Scarlet Royals,” and then begin harvesting the SGS Red toward the end of October, Scattaglia said. In the green category, SGS will have Princess starting in August, “continuing in September with Luisco and then Autumn King.”

For a late season black seedless variety, SGS will have Autumn Royals starting around October 1.

“As far as pack styles go, we offer a range of all pack styles,” Scattaglia said. Those include random weight pouch bags and fixed weight pouch bags as well as conventional two-pound grape bags and “all weights of clamshells.” This year, for the first time, the company is offering an eight-ounce fixed-weight pouch bag “for a quick-and-easy grab-and-go situation for the customer.”

One of the best things about the SGS grape program, according to Scattaglia, is “the way we handle the grape agriculturally from the very beginning, when we grow them, through packing, cooling and delivering of the grapes. We spare no expense. We use the finest packaging.” The grapes are delivered on brand new one-time-use pallets, he said.

“Our refrigeration practices and holding capacity at our cooling facility here are second to none,” he continued. “That is a big part of why our grape program is so successful. “We can make those deliveries because we treat the grapes with the utmost care from start to finish.”

All SGS vineyards are GlobalGAP certified, he said. “We are very proud that we offer that level of food safety.”