The summer grape season California’s San Joaquin Valley was going very well in all varieties as of Aug. 10, and showed all indications of continuing to do so, according to Jim Llano, sales manager at Castle Rock Vineyards in Richgrove, CA.

“We are pleased with the quality” of the grapes and also with the timing of the different varieties, he said.

Looking ahead, “overall we are pleased with the fall crop,” Mr. Llano said. “Everything may be a little bit earlier. However, we are pleased with the overall timing and separation between varieties.”

Movement has been good, even with the availability of competing products such as stone fruit and melons in the market, “and I think that is a testimony to the quality and condition of the grapes,” he said. “I think the wholesalers, retailers and consumers will continue to be very pleased with the quality out of California this year.”

Industrywide, some 60 percent of the California crop is harvested during the period from September through November, Mr. Llano said. That is also the period when the preponderance of Castle Rock’s grapes are harvested.

“Everything looks very good on the vine” with respect to quality, condition and timing,” he said. “Berry sizing is very uniform. We have great size, but we also have uniformity in berry size.” Also, “we have well-filled bunches, and we just see a really spectacular crop.

The eating quality of the grapes, as well as the overall quality, is “very, very good this year,” he said.

The firm’s Scarlet Royal harvest was underway. “We just see a really spectacular crop on the Scarlet Royal,” with excellent quality and condition.

Princess was “just starting to come off as well,” as were Thompsons, and on those “again we are very pleased with the quality.”

Castle Rock’s Red Globe harvest was still two to three weeks off, even though some shippers had already started. “We are seeing sizing up from last year, and we are seeing uniformity in berry sizing as well.” The Globe crop “is going to really present itself well for export, and we are looking forward to getting started on that with Asia and other international markets,” he said.

Over the past two or three years, “we have really looked at increasing our domestic distribution” of Red Globe “to complement our export distribution,” he said. “We have some retailers now that we have set programs up with” and others that have expressed interest. that has “as much to do with the quality of the grape” as it does with shifting demographics in the country, he said.

Autumn Royals were “just around the corner,” he said, and Autumn Kings, which typically start late September or into October, are expected to be earlier than that this year.

“We are looking forward to the fall,” Mr. Llano said “We expect it to be a great year. We are looking forward to the continued support of wholesalers and retailers and consumers. We think they are getting an excellent product this year.”

Castle Rock will have increased volume this year on its proprietary Castle Rock Red seedless table grape variety. “This will be our fourth year with good commercial production” on that variety, he said. “We have increased volume on that this year.”

The company also has two new proprietary green varieties “and another red” that will be in production two and three years from now, he said.

Castle Rock continues to work on “introducing our Scarlet Royals and Autumn Kings, as we see increased production in these varieties,” he said.

The company continues to work with improving its packaging, he said. This is our third year with the stand-up bag, and that has worked very well. We have seen that both the retail buyers and consumers have taken to this type of packaging.”

But packaging is “just a part of it,” he said. “It has to be the grape that is in the bag that makes the difference. I think the bag opens the door, but you have to be happy once you are inside, so we are really stressing that.”

Autumn Royals and Autumn Kings may both go into November for Castle Rock this year. “Those will be the last two varieties for us,” Mr. Llano said.

Crimsons, Scarlet Royals and Castle Rock Reds will be the last red seedless varieties for the company, and those could all go through October, he said.