Cornell wins $1.3 million grant to investigate new wine practices

To keep the wine industry of the eastern United States growing, the Specialty Crop Research Initiative awarded Cornell a $1.3 million grant to investigate new viticulture practices and marketing strategies.

The grant will bring Cornell staff together with experts from six other colleges and several small wineries along the Finger Lakes to perform tests in horticulture, viticulture and marketing.

Tom Bewick, leader of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture and program director of the SCRI, said he hopes Cornell’s valuable expertise will benefit grape-growers in New York and other states in the Mid-Atlantic region.

“Having Cornell on the team demonstrates the long-standing expertise Cornell has in grape production,” Bewick said. Cornell’s grant is just a piece of a larger $3.8 million wine-expansion project headed by Prof. Tony Wolf, viticulture, Virginia Tech.

Prof. Justine Vanden Heuvel, horticulture, said she will implement solutions for the unpredictable rainfall and climate problems that many wine growers face.

“I’ll be working with Prof. Ian Merwin [horticulture] to test the effectiveness of cover crops in vineyards,” Vanden Heuvel said. This will hopefully slow “vine growth, which could potentially result in higher quality fruit.”

Other Cornell professors involved in the project are Prof. Wayne Wilcox, plant pathology, and Prof. Alan Lakso, horticulture. Lakso’s main focus is refining the relationship between farmers and the quality of fruit they are producing.

“The wine industry has been increasing dramatically through the eastern U.S.,” Lakso said, adding that many new growers ask, “‘where is the best place to put a vineyard?’”

To help with this problem, Lakso has developed a website to help potential growers evaluate the soil, climate and topology in New York state. He said this would be valuable for growers choosing a site for a vineyard.

Headed by Prof. Bradley Rickard, applied economics and management, another side of this research project deals with the economic and marketing aspects of the wine industry. Rickard and his colleagues are collecting information to gauge consumer responses to advertising strategies.

“What is it about that label [on the wine bottle] that is most important [to the consumer]?” Rickard said.

The research is meant to help small farmers on the east coast, according to Prof. Anna Mansfield, food science. Mansfield said that most people believe that good wine is only from Europe of California — “a perception we need to overcome.”

“By focusing on regional wineries, we are helping small, regional farmers hang onto their farms,” Mansfield said.