“There has been a lot of development” at Anthony Vineyards Inc. in Bakersfield, CA, as with the California grape industry in general in terms of “new varieties coming up in the fall,” said John Harley, vice president of sales and marketing, Aug. 5.

The introduction and expansion of those varieties “will extend our season, there is no doubt about that,” Harley said. Even with the early harvest this year on most varieties, with those increases “we will probably go into December, barring any weather issues.”

The big weather concern for the late season is rain, “although nowadays, with covering different varieties of grapes, it helps extend that harvest season” by providing some protection from the rain.

For this season, “we have expanded our Luisco variety, as well as our Autumn Kings,” both fairly new late season green seedless varieties, Harley said. “We are presently harvesting Sugraones, Thompson Seedless and Princess varieties, which will probably be the case for the next two to three weeks. Then we will be looking at Luisco at that point as our first fall variety, which should start I would say the first part of September or last of August,” with Autumn Kings following.

Anthony Vineyards has some other newer varieties “that are now becoming more commercialized,” Harley said. One is the Gemma Rose, “which is proprietary for us.” Gemma Rose is a red seedless variety that “comes after our Scarlet Royals. The commercialization of that particular variety has been ongoing but is building.”

Another new proprietary red seedless variety “that we have developed and is coming on board” is B Red, he said. “This will be our first commercial year” for that variety, which should start in late September or early October.

Those two “should move us further into the fall season with fall grapes,” he said.

The B Red has an elongated berry and “looks very similar to a Crimson but colors easier,” Harley said. Berry size and bunch size are similar to Crimson, “but it can hang on the vine longer.”

Both of those varieties “have pretty good export potential as well as domestic potential and will be featured in our organic program, ” he said.

Another late season variety at Anthony Vineyards is Autumn Royal. “That is one of the varieties we have had for many years. We are a fairly large grower of Autumn Royals,” and that variety has also increased this year for the company. “The majority of them go export,” Harley said.

“We find them somewhat difficult to grow,” he continued, “but we have figured out how to do it and maintain the volumes.”