MN (and northern plains) Grape Losses

[GreginND]

This past winter was tough all over the country, but in the northern plains, it was particularly brutal. Not necessarily the cold but the long duration of severe cold weather has damaged most of the grape crop across ND, MN and WI.

Here's a good news article about the grape losses in Minnesota this year:

http://www.kare11.com/story/weather/weather-stories/2014/07/16/polar-vortex-latest-victim-the-minnesota-grape-crop/12764671/

It all suggests that mid-American wineries need to be diversifying their wines to other fruits besides grapes. I suspect all fruits will be in high demand as wineries scramble to find something to ferment.

 

[spaniel]

I have a diverse orchard in addition to my vineyard. If my experience is any indication, with a winter such as we just experienced even growing other fruits won't cover you. I have persimmons, 2 Asian pear varieties, 2 American pear varieties, 3 peach varieties, 2 cherry varieties, and 4 apple varieties. The Asian pears and three of the apple varieties look like I'll get an OK crop. The rest of it barely put out any flowers. The cherry trees in particular were significantly damaged by the cold, despite being 8 years old.

Fruit wines also don't sell well in many areas.

With the damage my vineyard sustained, I did some hard thinking about how to proceed -- bring things back up from the root and replace those that outright died, or change varieties altogether. In the end I elected to regrow/replace and move forward. After all this winter was a 50- or 80-year event. It didn't make sense to worry about something that will only happen 1-2 times during my winemaking career.

 

[richmke]

After all this winter was a 50- or 80-year event. It didn't make sense to worry about something that will only happen 1-2 times during my winemaking career.

Some scientists say we could be headed for another "Little Ice Age," given how eerily calm the sun has been in recent years.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/24/solar-lull-little-ice-age-sun-scientists_n_4645248.html

"We estimate that within about 40 years or so there is a 10% to 20% - nearer 20% - probability that we'll be back in Maunder Minimum conditions."

The era of solar inactivity in the 17th Century coincided with a period of bitterly cold winters in Europe.

Londoners enjoyed frost fairs on the Thames after it froze over, snow cover across the continent increased, the Baltic Sea iced over - the conditions were so harsh, some describe it as a mini-Ice Age.

And Prof Lockwood believes that this regional effect could have been in part driven by the dearth of activity on the Sun, and may happen again if our star continues to wane.
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-25743806

 

[GreginND]

For us it's not a 50 year event. We can get this more often and it could happen every 5 years. Thus, we need hardier varieties. We have a ND grape breeding program at NDSU working on it.

That being said, the haskaps, juneberries, aronia berries, and currants are all doing great this year. People love their fruit wines up here. While I would love to only produce dry grape wines, market demands tell me I wouldn't survive as a business without sweeter wines and other fruits.


Sent from my iPad using Wine Making

 

[spaniel]

If your market supports it, go with the fruit wines! Next time I drive through I'd love to try them. I started with them and they have a place in my heart. But around here, they are a hard sell.

Long-term climate outlook is certainly debatable....it is not PC to think we are not going into global warming. Many Christmas tree farms around here have gone out because they can no longer plant the profitable Frasier firs because it has gotten too warm on average (mine have not done well either). I don't pretend to have insight. But this past winter was the worst it has been here in 50-80 years depending what metric you look at. I'm familiar enough with your area and I'm sure it's much worse up there for you....I plant Marquette and yours will certainly be hit harder more frequently than mine.