A second cold winter has killed grape buds but at least this year Essex County wineries will have some grapes to make local wine.

“Although the winter was cold and we did lose some grapes again, it’s not a total loss,” Stephen Mitchell, president of the Essex Pelee Island Coast Winegrowers Association and president of Sprucewood Shores Estate Winery, said Monday. “We will have grapes and so it’s better than last year.”

A January 2014 deep freeze killed grape buds which meant no grapes grew at local wineries last summer. Wineries relied on selling 2013 wines or buying Niagara grapes to make wine. To sell a VQA Lake Erie North Shore wine you need 85 per cent locally grown grapes, so while you won’t find a VQA Lake Erie North Shore for 2014, you will be able to find some truly local 2015 wines, Mitchell said.

“We’ve got buds that are active and ready to burst soon.”

It’s too early to know how much damage was done in prolonged cold temperatures that dropped to about -22 C in late February. Wineries used wind machines to try to push slightly warmer air to the ground this year. That tactic didn’t work in January 2014 when it was windy and much colder.

Jim Willwerth, a senior scientist with Brock University’s Cool Climate Oeneology and Viticulture Institute, said there may be damage across Ontario that is difficult to predict.

“The biggest unknown is the back-to-back years — two years in a row — so now we’re waiting to see what kind of bud break we get,” he said.

Tom O’Brien of Cooper’s Hawk Vineyards southeast of Harrow said there was “extensive damage” to buds.

Brock University experts came to Essex County to do testing on bud survival. O’Brien said he had about two per cent survival rate for Merlot but there are rates as high as 40 per cent on some of the Rieslings, a 25 to 40 per cent survival rate on Cabernet Franc and a 60 per cent survival of Essex County’s own grape varieties.

“Merlot took a real hit. We all expected that because it’s a very sensitive one. Chardonnay was next,” O’Brien said of an eight per cent survival rate at his vineyard for Chardonnay buds.

It’s tricky to estimate how many grapes will be produced because vineyard managers don’t know what the growing season will be like and because grapes have primary buds, secondary buds (which may or may not produce grapes), and tertiary buds which will never grow grapes. The challenge with the secondary buds is that they take longer to produce grapes and ripen.

O’Brien said the deep snow cover helped protect buds. In the next three weeks the buds will break and produce tiny flowers. He’ll have a better idea by June of the potential crop.

“I’m happier than I was a year ago at this time,” O’Brien said.

Grapes in the smaller crop should be high quality and winemakers will focus on premium end wines this fall, Mitchell said. When there are fewer buds the vine will put more into each grape which makes for better quality, he said.

Source - http://blogs.windsorstar.com/