Bad News Wine Drinkers--a Tiny Pest Could Ruin California Vino

Six months after the Napa quake had wine drinkers around the world misty-eyed at the sight of shattered wine bottles, smashed barrels and wine running down drains in warehouses, a new threat is emerging—a bug called glassy-winged sharpshooter.

It’s tiny—half an inch long and an eighth-inch wide, roughly the size of the width of a dime. But the damage it can do is enormous. The bug can transmit the bacteria that causes Pierce’s disease. “There’s no cure for that, and it will kill the grapevine,” Stefan Parnay, Deputy Agricultural Commissioner said.

The pest was recently found in a shipment of nursery stock in Marin County. The shipment was returned to the supplier in Ventura County.

The price tag for earthquakes and pestilence could be steep. California wine sales reached $23.1 billion in 2013, according to the Wine Institute.

--Bay City News contributed to this report

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