Sundale Vineyards and its marketing arm, Sundale Sales, is one of the few remaining California table grape grower-shippers that offers “house-packed” table grapes to its customers, which allows it to have greater control over quality and often work a longer day.

Sean Stockton, president of Sundale Sales, said that the fruit packed in the temperature controlled packing facility allows Sundale to pack throughout the day and even run two shifts. “This week the temperature in the (San Joaquin) Valley is between 102 and 104 degrees,” he said on July 7. “State regulations mean that you have to shut down your field packing operations by 1 or 2 o’clock (p.m.) We pack in the field in the morning and then pack from totes in-house the rest of the day, where we can keep the facility cool.”

He explained that field workers can fill totes much faster than they can create a finished carton of bagged grapes. Those totes are then delivered to the packing facility where the fruit is typically packed in clamshells of various sizes. Stockton said there is an extra cost involved in that operation but the company has been control over the quality and the consistency of the pack, and just as importantly, can pack longer into the day. Sundale Vineyards will produce 4.0-4.5 million cartons of California table grapes over the next six months so those extra packing hours come in handy.

The company offers house-pack fruit even when the whether cools down in the fall. In fact, Stockdale revealed that the company’s late deal is another quality that sets it apart from its competition. Harvesting was getting under way this first week of July with Stockton expecting promotable supplies from the last week of July through December. He expects field production to peak in September/October with Sundale’s production peak to occur in the November/December time frame. “We have plenty of volume all season long but we are heavily weighted toward later in the year. We have a very good late program.”

He said Sundale Vineyards packs a substantial acreage of the green-colored Autumn King variety and has also redeveloped much of its late Scarlet Royal acreage to Allison over the past few years. All three of those varieties are late-maturing grapes.

Stockton said the grower has redeveloped much of its acreage in the last half dozen years with those new vines coming into full production. “We are expecting 20 percent more volume this year and our production should grow the next few years as well,” he said.

Among the newer varieties the company is touting are Timco, Krissy and Allison as replacements for Scarlet Royal. “We have been expanding our variety list over the last few years. We are also adding the ‘Candy’ varieties and are expecting good supplies of Candy Heart this year. In 2021 we will add Kokomo (a black grape variety).”

Sundale also has some organic grapes -- including Ivory, Krissy and Timco – but Stockton admits they are not a big player in the organic category. “We have some organic grapes as a way to offer one-strop shopping for some of our retail customers,” he said. “It’s not a huge volume, but it is increasing.”

He said the newer varieties offer many benefits, which is why acreage redevelopment is common throughout the San Joaquin Valley. “They are better tasting, deliver better yields and have a better size profile.”

The last two factors help the growers mitigate the increasing cost of labor in California. With wages continuing to climb, Stockton said growers must do everything they can to maximize labor costs. Getting more cartons per acre without significantly increasing pre-harvest labor costs is a logical way to accomplish that task. Of course, labor costs per acre increase when there is more fruit to harvest but returns also climb.

He noted that Sundale Sales is entering its 14th season as the exclusive sales agent for Sundale Vineyards, a family farming operation dating back the 1930s when the Kinosian family first started growing Thompsons and Emperors in the Tulare region, which is a bit further north than the majority of valley table grape vineyards.