VA vineyard meeting

Wednesday, May 2, 2007

Field Trip!!! I went with Cliff to a vineyard near Charlottesville today for one of the VA vineyard meetings (not too sure the official name of the meeting). I got to briefly meet some important people in the VA grape-growing business and a few other grape growers in the area. Tony Wolf (basically the VA guru of grapes) talked a lot about vinifera and chemicals/fertilizers/pesticides and how important they are, which ones to use, how often, how much, and what for. Then we got to walk around the vineyard and check out the frost damage (particularly on the Chardonnay). The managers of the vineyard we were at also discussed how they were going to try and save their third year(/leaf) merlot crop, which had frost damage along the ends. Interesting to see a huge commercial vineyard as compared to Cliff’s more experimental one. They used a lot of technical wording and pesticide acronyms, ect. The grape-growing for wine-making business definitely has its own vocabulary. I’m glad I went after having my internship, since I felt more confident I knew most of what he was talking about J though I did learn that they like to pull leaves and hedge trim the canopy at times to try and increase the amount of sunlight that reaches the fruit to improve crop quality. (Cliff said it increases the amount of sugar in the grapes). I also learned that some vineyards have to put up bird netting to keep out certain migratory birds that have been destroying their crop. These poor grapes seem to have a lot of enemies. Cliff also got to give a mini speech himself (upon request) about what he’s doing with his hybrid crosses. (He explained how he’s trying to breed a Norton-like grape that is disease resistant but tasty). A lot of the people at the meeting grow grapes for their living in a way that doesn’t really allow for the kind of experimentation that Cliff does, so a few seemed a bit sceptical of the practicality (and benefits) of what he’s doing. But I think what he is doing is really important. I mean if you have to graft Chardonnay onto native stalk just in order for it to grow in VA soil, and you have to dump tons of chemicals on it just so you can get a decent crop out of it, there must be a more efficient way of doing things. I agree with the comment that Cliff made in the car about the way vinifera appear to be going. It’s getting trickier and trickier to grow them. I mean, the poor people will screw themselves over one day when they can no longer grow these non-native plants. Power to the hybrid growers and sustainability. It really is too bad that we have all these grape varieties available, but you only ever really see a few of the big name ones at the grocery stores. I’ve definitely resolved to expand my horizons and try some other kinds of varieties myself. We stopped by the Edible Landscaping place on the way back to Sweet Briar, and I met this really funny French dude (that Cliff was going to give some of his seeds to) and a few other very nice people, but we had to run off with brochures over our heads once it started to rain.