Eastern Winegrowers Get California Advice

Penn State conference brings latest developments to vintners from five states

Manheim, Penn.—Consumers in tasting rooms often ask how a certain wine compares with a similar wine from California. Winemakers in the East regularly ask themselves and their winemaker friends the same question. On Feb. 11, Mark Chien, state viticulturist at Penn State Cooperative Extension and Wines & Vines contributor, addressed a daylong event at 1,500-case Waltz Vineyards to explore this subject.

He invited Jeff Newton from Coastal Vineyard Care Associates in California’s Santa Barbara County and Andy Erickson, owner of Favia Erickson Winegrowers in Napa, to talk with a group of approximately 40 winery owners and winemakers from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia.

Chien’s goal for the event was simple: to help advanced growers and winemakers in the East grow and produce better wines. He told Wines & Vines, “California is the leader in viticulture and wine knowledge and technology in the U.S. Even if we do not share the same terroir, we can learn from them. It’s important that eastern winegrowers understand what is occurring in California’s vineyards and cellars. Then it’s up to us to decide what will work in our conditions.”

The program was designed to be conversational so that participants could ask questions of Newton about California’s best viticultural practices for super-premium wine production and of Erickson about current ideas and new technologies being used for winemaking. 

According to Chien, the Eastern United States is one of the most challenging regions in the world for fine winegrowing. The climate—with as much as 4 inches of rain per month throughout the year, hurricanes, winter injury, etc.—makes it imperative that eastern viticulture be more rigorous than in California or other dry regions, where growers have control over the amount of water their grapevines receive.

Eastern growers must carefully select vineyard sites to find well-drained soils with appropriate slopes and microclimates; winemakers must be adaptive and creative to deal with the problems of grapegrowing in such a variable climate.

After a day of conversation and discussion, the participants tasted a variety of red wines from California and the other states represented at the meeting. Wines tasted included:

• California: Favia Wines 2007 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon and 2007 Napa Valley Cerro Sur; the 2007 El Alma de Jonata; Foxen Winery and Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, Vogelsang Vineyard;

• Maryland: Black Ankle Vineyards 2007 Crumbling Rock;

• New Jersey: Almathea Cellars 2007 Europa 4;

• New York: Pellegrini Vineyards 2005 Vineyard Reserve; Wolffer Estate Vineyard 2005 Christian’s Cuvee Merlot;

• Pennsylvania: Allegro Vineyards 2008 Cadenza; Chaddsford Winery 2007 Merican; Karamoor Farm 2008 Meritage; Penns Woods Winery 2005 Merlot; Pinnacle Ridge Winery 2008 Veritas; Waltz Vineyards 2007 Merlot;

• Virginia: Linden Vineyards 2007 Boisseau.

According to Chien, the California wines reflected the “sunny” climate in the West (see Chien’s article, “Sunny Wines, Cloudy Wines,” in the February 2011 issue of Wines & Vines) and were rich, concentrated, velvety and fruit-forward.

He described the eastern wines as more austere. “The acid was more prominent, as was the savory quality, which adds to the complexity with the East Coast wines,” Chien noted. “All the wines were quite well made, with good flavors and structure that was laudable.”

Dr. Joe Fiola, viticulture and small fruit specialist at the Western Maryland Research and Education Center in Keedysville, Md., who assisted Chien with the wine tasting, commented that growers in the East are producing better fruit (in recent years), and that quality is reflected in the wines being made.

“Since we don’t have the water control that California does, it is really important that growers find sites that have well-dra ined soils that don’t hold too much water. These were really nice wines, even those that were made in a season with some very heavy rains,” he told Wines & Vines