Winter damage

[Hokapsig]

http://triblive.com/state/pennsylvania/5871302-74/wine-grape-grapes#axzz2y2ZV8MEI

With the nasty winter, how is this going to affect the current year's crop? Especially in PA/OH/NY where a new winery might need to source juice/grapes???

Winery owners, I'm interested on hearing your take on this and what options you will use to make up the difference.

 

[Runningwolf]

Plain and simple, it's bad news. I didn't read your article but we're not talking bud damage with a harvest. We're talking a vine kill off and we all know you're looking at three years before you even start to get anything to pick. The Vinifera are the hardest hit. We still need more time to see what the real extent of it is.

 

[grapeman]

A winter such as this past one is good cause for reassessing what varieties you are growing. All the hype that last 10 years or so has been the environment is warming up. I have been in a zone 4b at my place historically but the latest USDA zone map moved me up to a 5a. I have a few varieties that are zone 5, but I grow limited amounts of them, because I just don't want to bet the vineyard on 10 years of weather. Averages are just that and once in a while they go to extremes- namely this year.

While many vineyards push the envelope and grow a lot of warmer zone varieties they are risking extreme winter damage in those off years. Many of the vineyards in the region you are naming are seeing expected crop losses of around 90%.

The bulk of my vines I feel confident with as they are zone 3 and 4 varieties. Bud cuttings have confirmed some damage- less than 10% and should not affect cropping. Those few zone 5 varieties I have experienced greater than 75% bud kill. Will it adversely affect my vineyard- probably not because I only have around 10% of the vineyard planted to them.