As Missouri and Illinois winemakers gear up for the spring, when they bottle last year’s grapes, some will be crossing their fingers, hoping that last year’s wet and cool weather translates to a decent vintage.
Some wineries are weeks behind the blending and fermentation processes because of delayed harvests and rainy weather last year. Other wineries are working with fewer grapes because of lower yields, while questions remain about the impact the tricky weather had on the quality of the grapes.
"Normally we know about now, but this year it’ll be about Groundhog Day or Valentine’s Day before we know if we’ve had a good year," said Chuck Dressel, owner of Mount Pleasant Winery in Augusta. "We’re waiting with bated breath."
For Missouri, a bumper crop in 2008 came on the heels of a difficult 2007, when vines were damaged by an April frost that damaged buds. But 2009 appears to be a mixed bag — a year that challenged experienced grape growers and frustrated those new to the industry.
"It was a vintage that literally separated the men from the boys," said Jon Held, general manager of Stone Hill Winery, headquartered in Hermann. "It was very challenging if you didn’t understand the technology, and it’s a very challenging climate to begin with. Some of the guys who lack the experience had a really hard time. … Some folks had a disastrous year."
The Missouri wine industry has grown steadily since its rebirth in the 1960s, which revived a wine business curtailed by Prohibition. Along with steadily increasing acreage and more wineries in recent years has come more expertise and advanced technologies that make growing seasons like 2009 easier to manage.
"It was cool and wet, and they had to monitor the vineyards very carefully. They had to spray a lot," said Jim Anderson, executive director of the Missouri Wine and Grape Board. "The better growers did a really great job. You had to be a good farmer to keep an eye on everything."
In Illinois, the weather throughout 2009 led to one of the state’s worst years for the wine industry, said Bill Shoemaker, senior research specialist for food crop agriculture with the University of Illinois. Still, he struck a more optimistic note about the this year’s grape crop in Illinois.
"I think the odds are that this year will be a whole lot better than 2009," Shoemaker said.
Numbers for the final yield aren’t yet available. Anderson said he expects that Missouri’s grape growers pulled in about 4,200 tons of fruit, which is a typical yield in recent years, despite the weather and soggy harvest. He credits what appears to be solid yield to more acreage being put in production than in previous years.
Shoemaker also had no figures for the yield in Illinois. He said growers throughout the state raise grapes that are hybrids, genetically designed to withstand cold weather. But those grapes do not fare as well in overly wet conditions like last year’s, he said.
Missouri and Illinois growers raise about 1,500 acres of wine-producing grapes per year in each state fast cash. That figure has doubled in the last 10 years, thanks to the growing popularity of locally produced wines.
Missouri now has more than 90 wineries, up from just over 30 a decade ago. Illinois has more than 80 wineries, and it had fewer than 30 in 2000.
The main issue in 2009 in both states was wet weather, which delayed the grapes’ ripening. The harvest, which typically begins in September and runs through October, was stalled by rain.
Steve Hicks is vineyard manager for the seven acres of grapes at Black Diamond Vineyards near Nashville, Ill., about 50 miles east of St. Louis. He said 2009 was the worst year for the vineyard since it opened in 2005. "It’s farming, so you never know from one season to the next, but the vines are pretty resilient," Hicks said.
The vineyards produce grapes for dry white and semi-sweet red wines. But the winery still did well last year, Hicks said, because it also produces wines made from imported grape juice.
Aside from slowing the ripening of the fruit, the cool and wet weather brought threats of disease.
"The biggest problem was keeping the diseases down," said Mark Baehmann, winemaker at Chaumette Vineyards and Winery in Ste. Genevieve. "When you don’t have the heat to dry up the moisture, you have more pressure from disease."
Baehmann explained that Chaumette’s vineyard workers did a lot of thinning, deliberately keeping yields low, but allowing more light and heat to reach the fruit. "We had low tonnage this year," he said. "I needed every grape I could get."
But with the region’s variable climate, some vineyards actually experienced some of their best years ever. "It was a great year for us all around," said Peter Hofherr, of St. James Winery near Rolla, the state’s largest winery. "We had more heat than everybody else; we’re in a small band. Our reds ripened earlier than everybody else by a couple of weeks."
At Augusta Winery, growers allowed the grapes to stay on the vine a little longer, allowing them more time to ripen despite the risk of cold, said Tony Kooyumijian, Augusta’s owner.
"I would say it was (our best year) since 2002. A lot of it depends on how much experience you have growing grapes in Missouri. You have to be patient and be able to tolerate a little risk."
The cool harvest conditions also had an upside.
"For the first time in about five years, we were able to grow ice wine," said Dressel, of Mount Pleasant, explaining that ice wine is made from grapes that have been allowed to freeze on the vine. "With the cool summer and the grapes not ripening fast enough, we knew the fruit would hang on the vine well into December. It hasn’t been cold enough to do that. … That’s our shining star this year."
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