Sundale Vineyards in Tulare, CA, together with its sales arm, Sundale Sales Inc., have enjoyed a steady growth in table grape volume over the last few years, and have undertaken substantial facility expansions along the way to keep pace.

This year, Sundale expects another substantial volume increase. “I’m probably going to see 20 percent growth in volume over last year,” said Sean Stockton, president of Sundale Sales. “Sundale continues to grow with great customer support.”

That growth is a result of consistently offering customers a quality product, Stockton said. “If you grow a quality product, and continue to deliver that quality product to your customer base, it will have a direct correlation with your growth.”

The volume increase this season is spread across several varieties. “We have continued growth in Autumn Kings, new ranches of Sugraones and Red Globes that are in production now, and a new block of Flames that is in full production this season for the first time,” Stockon said.

The company does not have an acreage increase in its proprietary Sundale Red variety this year; however, “we are going to plant some more after this season,” he said.

The company has some older Crimson vineyards “that we are going to pull out and put in some new varieties” including Sundale Reds. “So we are continually transitioning year to year.”

Sundale has a five-year plan “that has a good rotation,” replacing older vineyards with preferred varieties and also planting “some new things that we are experimenting with,” he said.

“We are a full service facility,” Stockton noted. Recent facility expansions have included the addition of a state-of-the-art house pack facility “that is over 20,000 square feet.” In that facility, “we can pack any specialty packs that anybody may need, up to 25,000 boxes a day,” such as multi-color specialty packs. That facility is “in full swing now.”

Sundale offers “a full mix” of pack styles such as fixed weight bags, clamshells of various sizes, and stand-up pouch bags.

Last year, the company even packed some multi-color stand-up bags, Stockton said. “We haven’t started doing that yet” this season, “but we will be shortly. It’s available.” However, he said, most customers prefer clamshells for bicolor and tri-color packs.

Grapes “continue to be a market driver for retail sales, and we are fortunate to be in that part of the program,” he said.

This year’s harvest “started about 10 days earlier than normal for us,” Stockton said July 10.

“We are packing out Flames, Sugraones and Summer Royals already” and expect to start Princess “probably by the middle of next week” and Red Globes about the first week of August.

“Quality is outstanding. We have got incredible color and size on the Flames and Summer Royals, and our third-year crop here on Sugraones looks to be shaping up very nice,” he said.

“A consistent majority of the crop is packing out at a number one quality,” Stockton said. “As high as 70 to 80 percent of our early harvesting has been number one quality fruit, so that is very exciting. It would be for anybody. That is what we are striving for. If we can maintain that kind of consistency on premium quality, it will really help continue our growth.”