California's Drought Delivering Tastier Wine In Napa Valley
NAPA VALLEY (CBS SF) -- Turns out there is one up side to California's crippling drought.
The extra dry conditions are producing some of the best wine California has seen in nearly a decade.
In normal conditions the roots of grape vines grow 10 feet deep. But in dry conditions they are forced to go twice as deep in search of water.
That produces a smaller grape with more concentrated sugar and flavor.
"Can you really taste the difference between a wet year and a dry year?" said Michael Honig, of Honig Vineyard in Rutherford. "Yes you can. Because in a wet year the fruit does not get as ripe."
But dwindling water supplies also means less grapes and fewer wine bottles on the market.
"The scarcity of water will likely push up prices for wines, especially some of the cheaper ones," Rowan Gormley, founder of the online retailer NakedWine, told Fortune.