| Update
from Mark Chien |
- What it's all about in the first place - growing fully
mature, clean wine grapes for our commercial wineries.
- What can we achieve in the short term, given our current
level of knowledge and experience. We do not have many professionals
in the grower community, yet we have a fairly high level
of basic viticulture knowledge. It should be the goal of
every grower, new and old, small and large, to strive for
balance in their vines and vineyard. Generally, our sites
are quite vigorous, so I speak of balance in the parameters
set by Richard Smart and Phil Freese. While you can't grow
great wine by the numbers, these serve as excellent guidelines.
We achieve balance primarily in the canopy and crop. In
years like 03/04, this balance is more critical than ever
to achieve ripeness in the fruit.
- Disease control in the last two years are simply the difference
between good and bad wine. No matter how good a wine maker
is, he or she cannot make good wine out of diseased grapes.
Growers have to keep their fruit clean. While we talked
about sustainable practices, conventional are tested and
proven and most successful methods of pest control. Use
the New York and Pennsylvania Pest Management Recommendations
for Grapes: 2004 as you principle guide to disease, insect
and weed control. As you become more skilled in the vineyard,
you can adopt lower input practices in drier years.
- If you insist on organic methods, there is some great
information out there. I encourage travel to Europe and
California to visit organic vineyards and talk about specific
methods. I would recommend a nifty practical guide that
Ann Thrupp, the manager of organic development at Fetzer
Vineyards has put together. It's a no nonsense guide to
the practical aspects of organic wine growing and has excellent
reference resources listed.
- The arrival of Stephen Menke, our enology extension agent,
has been a huge benefit for the wine community. His presence
is illuminating, to say the least, for me. Stephen has put
a zillion miles on his car visiting PA wineries far and
wide. One of his major conclusions about the limits of wine
quality that he encountered is the general lack of good
quality wine grapes, measured both quantitatively and qualitatively.
This is a challenge to growers. We simply need to do a better
job in the vineyard. Yes, the wineries need to be on top
of their game, too. But the essence of the issues is the
grapes, and they need to get better. I need to figure out
how to do this. We need to figure out how to do this.
- Chicken and Egg. This is always the argument in any emerging
wine region. Do we grow great grapes and them make great
wine and make the wine first. Unfortunately, like most things
in life, it seems to boil down to money. The wineries need
to command high prices to afford grapes grown with the necessary
care to achieve quality levels that can make great wine.
In the case of the independent vineyard, if you grow super
grapes, some winery will make super wine and compensate
you for your efforts. Eventually, the industry stratifies
into segments of quality and growers must decide where they
wish to reside. High prices for grape are earned and we
need to prove that we can grow the kind of grapes that deserve
them. It's up to the wineries to convince the consumer that
the wines are worth it. And they will. As an industry, we
need to tackle the matter of independent vineyards and how
to make them more prosperous and sustainable.
- The Future. Quality resides in site selection. I apologize,
but it's that simple. We have a problem here in the East.
You may have noticed. It's called rain. We have had a lot
of smart people come to our region this summer and comment
about the need to grow smaller vines, restrict shoot growth
and berry size in order to make fine wines. Since we are
not dry like California or Chile, we need to figure out
a way to remove water from our soils and away from vines
at the right time of the year. So, as we mature as an industry,
it is my hope that the focus of future growers will be on
site selection.
- 2004. The jury is still out. My last message commented
on being prepared for a rainy harvest. My intuition has
not altered. Crop control and canopy management, even at
this late hour, are much-needed contributors to quality.
Continue the battle on the disease front. Birds have arrived.
Work with the wine makers as best you can. In years like
this, communication is more important than ever.
- Winter Injury. We took our losses in the' 04 winter. Some
great information is provided in the Finger Lakes Grape
Program newsletter. Dr. Bob Poole explains just what happened
up there and much of it applies to us. If you can understand
why vines are damaged, you can better prepare to avoid dangerous
conditions. Read the newsletter and Dr. Poole's web site
to find out more.
- Get involved with PAW. We need a strong grower association
to represent wine growers. VA and Ontario are the best examples
and look how they have grown and prospered.
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