The harsh weather that we had this past winter is impacting the grape crop for wineries on the Old Mission Peninsula.

Only 50 percent of the crop was able to be salvaged from the cold winter this year and it will affect some varieties of wine more than others, but you won't see the changes until next year.

"After the winter we had, we didn't know if we were going to have any crop at all," said Mark Johnson, Vintner at Chateau Chantal.

Last winter may be a fading memory, but it's still taking toll on the wine grapes on Old Mission and growers were only able to save half of this year's crop.

"When it gets below zero, you start seeing some problems," said Sean O'Keefe, Vice President of Chateau Grand Traverse. "A lot of the fruiting buds were damaged beyond repair," said O'Keefe.

The weather that came in the following seasons didn't help either.

"On top of the late spring, we had a pretty cool summer and we're seeing everything about two weeks behind in ripening," said O'Keefe.

The loss of crop affects some varieties of wine more than others.

"You're not gonna see very many reds this year, in this region, it's gonna be mostly riesling, there's some pinot noir a little bit of red, chardonnay, some pinot blanc, very little pinot grie, no merlot, no cab franc," said O'Keefe.

Although, you won't see these changes until next year, since it takes at least a year to make the wine...and the crop loss means profit margins might be squeezed.

"You still have to do the same labor, tractors are going through, the sprays and everything else that you would have a normal year but you have less yield to spread those costs over, so that's going to be a problem," said O'Keefe.

But they're trying to look on the bright side and they say that less quantity, means better quality.

"I think the chance of us getting a really good quality is much greater with a half of crop," said Johnson. "So you got to look at it positively, we'll have some really beautiful fruit, we just won't have that much of it," said O'Keefe.

Source - http://www.9and10news.com/