At Castle Rock Vineyards in Richgrove, CA, as for the California table grape industry as a whole, the Autumn King, a relatively new green seedless variety, and Scarlet Royal, a relatively new red seedless variety, have become important varieties for the late season and continue to increase in volume, according to Jim Llano, sales manager.

“There has been growth in the Autumn King. That has been a trend the last two to three years as young vineyards have come into their maturity,” Llano said. Scarlet Royal also “has continued to increase in volume” for the industry and for Castle Rock.

Other varieties Castle Rock grows, packs and markets for the late season are Crimson, Autumn Royal and Red Globe.

Most of the Autumn Royals, a black seedless variety, will go export, Llano said. “That variety has a tremendous Asian demand.” But “we will have some available as well for the domestic market. The Autumn Royal will take us really into November and probably through the end of the year.”

Red Globes are also “a major export program for us,” Llano said.

When The Produce News talked to Llano Aug. 7, the company had finished the early season Flame crop and was “moving with our Sweet Celebration.” From there, “we will be into our Scarlet Royals which takes us right into our fall program. That will set us up on reds,” he said.

He expected the Sweet Celebration harvest to continue another three weeks or so, transitioning around the end of August or early September into the Scarlet Royals.

In the green seedless category, the harvest would transition shortly from the early season varieties into the midseason Princess “and then move into our Autumn Kings” which will carry through “to the end of the year,” he said.

“The Autumn King is a variety that growers have learned to grow over the past three or four years. We have seen it now with demand, both domestically and on an international basis” as a variety that has basically replaced Thompsons for the late season. “It is a grape that has found a tremendous niche” and has “really turned out to be a winner.”

So far this year, “everything has been coming off quite nicely in terms of color, flavor and Brix. We are happy with the quality this year, and I think that will continue to set it up for the fall season as well,” he said, although “in terms of weather, no one can predict that more than a month out as we transition into September and October. But the way things are setting up, we are very pleased.”

The focus at Castle Rock, not only for the fall period but “throughout the growing season,” is on “what we do in terms of the eating quality — the flavor profiles — of our grapes,” Llano said. “That is the utmost importance of what we do as a company and what we strive to deliver to the consumer” in order to give consumers “the best eating experience” so they will return to their retailers for more.