The weather in the Central Valley of California this growing season has been ideal for grapes, and the season “has really set up beautifully for what we are seeing is going to be … an excellent pick and excellent quality” for the fall harvest, said Jim Llano, sales manager at Castle Rock Vineyards in Richgrove, CA, in an interview with The Produce News Aug. 9.

“We are excited about the quality. We are excited about the condition. We are excited, certainly, with the size as well … so really this past month has been I deal for the industry,” he said.

Jim LlanoRetailers “can take a look at what will be coming, in terms of quality and in terms of outstanding varieties as well,” Llano added. Not only does he expect that “the quality and condition of everything will be just outstanding this year,” but “I think it is going to be an excellent time for retail” as some of the newer varieties “come to fruition,” he said.

Among those varieties, for Castle Rock, are Scarlet Royal and Sweet Celebration, both red seedless varieties, and Autumn King, a green seedless variety.

Scarlet Royal and Autumn King were both released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2005. Sweet Celebration is a more recent introduction developed by International Fruit Genetics.

Scarlet Royal “has been around a little while but has an increase in volume” this year both for the industry and for Castle Rock, Llano said. “Growers have worked with the variety for the past few years, and we have had the opportunity to learn how best to grow this variety for flavor, for Brix, certainly for color. The Scarlet Royals that we are seeing this year are really outstanding.”

The Castle Rock website describes Scarlet Royal as having “large, cylindrical shaped, crunchy berries” available from September through January.

Sweet celebration is “a variety that is not in too many hands,” Llano said. “WE are fortunate to have this variety and we are happy with the quality this year.”

The Castle Rock website describes Sweet Celebration as having “extra large berries” round in shape and full red in color, with a September-to-November availability.

“We saw it last year in very small volume. We will have a few more for better distribution this year with better volume coming next year and the next couple of years,” Llano said. It is a variety that “is distinguishing itself through flavor characteristics” with a Brix level of “22 percent or so.” It has “excellent bunch conformation” and “a wonderful cap stem attachment.” It eats well, it ships well, and it “looks great” on the retail shelf, he said. “We are very excited about this variety.”

On the green side, “we are continuing with the Autumn King for the fall,” Llano said. “Over the past couple of years … the flavor profiles and Brix have really come around on this variety” as growing techniques have improved. “We saw it last year, and I think with the quality setting up for the season as it is, I think we are going to see an outstanding Autumn King” this year as well.

Other new varieties are coming along as well, he said. One of those, for Castle Rock, is called Envy. A late-season green, the company will have it in very small volume this year, “hardly anything,” but “we will have more next year and the year after.”

The new varieties, both red and green, offer “some new opportunities at retail,” he said.

In produce in general and specifically in table grapes, new varieties and new packaging, together with “the quality that has come around ... speaks for the creativity that the industry has put forward for retail,” Llano said. “We see the excitement at retail with table grapes. I think that is exciting for the industry’s future, and very much for this fall as we approach the months of September, October and November.”

At Castle Rock specifically, the important message for customers going into the 2013 fall season, Llano said, is the company’s “overall dedication to quality, the dedication to service to our customers, and …moving forward with varietals and packaging.”