This year's red aging in oak barrels at CJS Vineyards & Aurelius Winery.
Happy New Year! Thankfully 2020 is behind us, and we all look forward to a better, healthier and happier 2021. The Finger Lakes grapes from 2020 and the ensuing wines we produced were definitely the highlights of this past year, as the hot, dry summer produced excellent grapes that went on to become fantastic wines. Eternally optimistic, grape growers are looking forward to a good growing season in 2021, and hopefully life will return to normal by mid-year.
Looking back, December weather was all over the place: cold, snow, warm, rain and a little sun. The vineyards are now dormant and large growers will start pruning soon. It’s a job done by hand in the cold weather, and it’s a slow process. So if you have many acres, you need to start now to complete the pruning before the spring, when the vines awaken. Smaller producers like us can wait until March or April, which can be important if we get sub-zero temperatures between now and spring.
The 2021 grape crop is already on the vine in the buds, so they need to survive the winter to produce in the spring and summer. Temperatures below zero Fahrenheit can kill off the buds. Vinifera grapes (Riesling, chardonnay, pinot noir and cabernet franc) are more sensitive to the cold than the hybrid grapes (Cayuga white, baco noir, seyval blanc and chambourcin). However, when you approach 10 below and colder, they start to be affected as well. The hardiest wine grapes are the University of Minnesota hybrids (Marquette, Frontenac, LaCresent and Itasca). These vines can withstand temperatures to 30 below and still survive and produce grapes.
The most recent year where we saw severe winter damage was on Valentine’s Day 2016, when temperatures in the Finger Lakes dropped below 20. Many of us growers called it the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, since much of the 2016 crop was lost, except for the Minnesota varieties. Let’s hope we don’t see those temperatures again in our lifetimes. If we can wait to prune until late March, most of the sub-zero weather should be behind us, and if we did experience really cold temperatures, we can prune off less to make up for any bud damage, and still be done in time before the vines come back to life.
Looking over 2020, we saw less visitors to the Finger Lakes wineries since our tasting rooms were not permitted to open until mid-June. However, after getting the green light on June 13, we saw lots of visitors right up until a week before Christmas, even with reduced capacity and new COVID-19 restrictions. Local guests and visitors from neighboring states were glad to get out and about and taste some wine.
Chris Scholomiti
The first quarter of the year is typically a quiet time. Our past vintages are comfortably aging in tanks and barrels, giving winemakers and grape growers a chance to think about the future and industry conferences and trade shows to attend. From what I can see, these shows will be all virtual this year. The largest in the United States is the Unified Wine & Grape Symposium in California on Jan. 26-29, all online this year. As is the BEVNY (Business, Enology and Viticulture New York) 2021. This is a great conference and trade show put on with Cornell's Extension Enology Lab, the Finger Lakes Grape Program and the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management. I’ve attended for many years and find it a great resource for grape growing and winemaking, which has helped the New York wine industry grow and gain global recognition for quality wines. I’ll have more information next month on the topics and program for BEVNY 2021.
Chris Scholomiti is co-owner and winemaker at CJS Vineyards & Aurelius Winery, located at 6900 Fosterville Road, Aurelius. The winery's tasting room is now open by appointment, with tastings on the hour from noon to 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, and by appointment on weekdays. The winery also offers curbside pickup and wine shipments. For more information, questions or comments about the column or wine and grape-growing in the Finger Lakes, email wine@cjsvineyards.com, call (315) 730-4619 or find the winery on Facebook.
January 01, 2021 at 06:45PM
https://ift.tt/3hxuiaV
Scholomiti: Finger Lakes grapes a rare highlight of 2020 - Auburn Citizen
https://ift.tt/3eO3jWb
Grape
No comments:
Post a Comment