A cold weekend in May has put vintners in a major setback while preparing for the upcoming wine season.
The weekend of May 14-15, temperatures dipped to below freezing for most of southeastern Minnesota and southern Wisconsin. This ruined large portions of grapes for many local wineries.
"The cold turned the water in the shoots cells to ice, killing the tissue," said Amaya Atucha, a University of Wisconsin-Madison assistant horticulture professor.
John Falconer, who owns the 12-acre Falconer's Vineyards in Red Wing, said he lost nearly his entire crop after the mercury dropped below 30 degrees for four hours.
"It looks so terrible," Falconer said. "(The cold) took everything. Mother Nature slapped us this year."
Falconer said he estimates they lost about 75 percent of their entire crop for this upcoming season. "The buds were just too exposed," said Falconer. "It was more cold than the buds could handle."
Steve Johnson, head of the Wisconsin Grape Growers Association, said generally, each lost acre of grapes amounts to a loss of about $7,000 to $8,000 and 3,000 bottles of wine.
Justin Osborne, the winemaker at Four Daughters Vineyard & Winery in Spring Valley, said "every winery is different."
Four Daughters Vineyard & Winery only lost about 10 percent of their total crop, according to Osborne.
"There's a few spots here and there, but overall, we will be just fine," Osborne said.
Osborne talked about the importance of one degree versus two degrees, and how it can make a huge difference for grapes. For example, 32 degrees with slight wind could be sustainable for crops. However, 31 degrees with no wind could damage crops. Fortunately, Four Daughters had wind that chilly weekend, which helped saved their crops from permanently frosting.
Wineries already have started their 2016 season with or without their abundance of grapes. Those that were damaged from the freeze out will have to source their grapes from other growers to generate 2017 inventory.
The freeze shouldn't lead to any immediate, large-scale wine shortages for consumers. The freeze-out was extremely localized, UW-Madison's Atucha noted.
What's more, Wisconsin and Minnesota produce just a small fraction of U.S. wine; Wisconsin has only about 110 wineries and Minnesota has only about 50. By comparison, California, by far the nation's top wine-producing state, has about 4,000 wineries.
Source - http://www.postbulletin.com
