Wine customers ripening ahead of grape crops

Mild summer has vineyards behind in harvest

  This summer has been a mixed blessing for the area's wineries; not warm enough for growing grapes, but just right for attracting people who like them.

Northeastern Wisconsin winery owners say customers have been showing up in large numbers, but the grape crop is up to three weeks behind.

"We would like to have been warmer, but in terms of visitors it's been pretty ideal," said Steve Johnson, owner of Parallel 44 Vineyard and Winery near Stangleville.

Vineyard owners say grapes are ripening nicely, but slowly. The longer it takes, the more it becomes a race to beat bad weather.

"We'll be later to harvest. Then we run into the frost risk. Then heavy rains and wind. And if you get hail, it's done," said Steve DeBaker, owner of Trout Springs Winery near Wayside in southern Brown County.

Tim Lawrie, owner of Simon Creek Vineyard & Winery in Door County, and at 34 acres the largest vineyard in the region, said warm weather increases sweetness and adequate moisture keeps grapes juicy.

"We haven't had to irrigate at all," he said. "I think we are going to be able to rebound. I think we are a little warmer than we were last year at this time. We've got some making up to do."

Sunshine and heat help increase the sugar quotient, or brix, in grapes.

"We've got to have heat in the day to get to 20 to 24 percent brix," which is the preferred level, DeBaker said.

Tim Abel of LedgeStone Vineyards near Greenleaf said sugar levels are increasing.

"If the weather stays like this, I think we might catch up," he said. "Keep it completely dry until we are done. The vines take that (moisture) up and the sugars go down."

Abel said his vines had a double bloom this spring, with one group being two weeks behind the other. They cut out all the green grapes recently because when they turn purple it would be impossible to tell them apart from the riper ones.

Bill Schmiling, who manages the vineyard for von Stiehl Winery in Algoma, said they thinned about one-quarter of their crop in an effort to get the remainder to ripen more quickly.

"This last week has been really beneficial. If we can get a couple more weeks of this in September, we'll probably be all right," Schmiling said.

The forecast for the next week calls for temperatures in the 70s and mostly sunny days, according to the National Weather Service.

In the Midwest, acid levels also are important, Johnson said. Warm weather helps reduce those, too.

And there are other factors to producing a good crop. Grapes like hills, some soils better than others and good angles on sunlight.

"Anytime you are on a slope, it serves as a way to drain cool air away from the grapes," Johnson said. "If there is no breeze at night, it doesn't matter where you are. The cold settles everywhere."

Johnson, who has nine acres of vines, said being closer to Lake Michigan means frost often happens about two weeks later than farther inland. The von Stiehl vineyard is about one mile from Lake Michigan, so normally gets a later frost, but Schmiling said an October harvest still would be tempting fate.

DeBaker, who grows vines on five acres, said his grape crop was wiped out last year by a hard, 12-hour freeze, the first of its kind in 15 years. His 2007 crop yielded 15 tons, which he said was a good harvest.

Lawrie said they are getting better at growing grapes, a process that is barely a decade old for most.

"We are getting better at it and we are getting more help," Lawrie said, citing the assistance of Dick Weidman, superintendent of the UW Peninsular Research Station in Door County.

Schmiling said this kind of summer makes them better because they learn new techniques to deal with circumstances.

"When we get (plant) stress, we tend to try a little harder," he said.

The winery owners say visitor numbers have been up this summer, with Labor Day weekend being especially fruitful.

And even if they don't successfully produce grapes, visitors want to see vineyards at the wineries.

"There is kind of a mystique to it," Lawrie said. "We just had a wedding out here this afternoon."

Johnson said hardly a day goes by that someone isn't taking pictures among his vines.

He is obsessed with the Weather Channel these days and said the mystique is less for the vineyard owners.

"People think grape growing and wine making are romantic, and I guess it can be, but it's still farming," he said.