Not the wine, actually, but the growing environment impacted by climate change. Interesting piece
We should almost have a separate Climate Change board on Wine Berserkers by this point.
I think it was Warren Buffet who said, “when most other people buy very, very dry wine, I load up on sweet wine!”
And then I read the article…
Can it have the same rules as politics? It seems like it should be science–but in this ‘post truth’ world…
I missed the earlier thread; my bad. Please merge with that one, mods
The Great Lakes (not The Finger Lakes, as that is always swill) region should be making world class wine in the '19 vintage. In spring, we had a ton of rain and it was early with no frosts followed by a hot dry summer. It’s in the 90’s and mostly dry until at least the first week of October. A very ‘Mediterranean’ climate so far this year. Give some '19 pinot noir, cab franc, and chardonnay from the Niagara Bench Escarpment and some Michigan riesling a try. If a certain orange person should do well again, I might just move to the Okanagan Valley.
One of the challenges will be to turn vineyards into ‘dry farmed’ if possible - but this is not always possible. If there is not enough rain and the groundwater is not plentiful enough, the vines will not survive.
Anyone have and info on wineries in ‘warmer climates’ that are dry farming - or have shifted to dry farming over the past decade? I believe Tablas did - anyone know of others?
Cheers.
Apparently a fellow named Nicholas Longworth was making world-class sparkling wines in Ohio, from the Catawba grape, circa 1830 to 1850.
But then circa 1860, powdery mildew appeared on the scene, and the Ohio grape-growing industry suddenly vanished into oblivion.
Ohio was actually the leading wine producing state in the Union before California and prohibition. One of my favorite defunct wineries in Ohio was Kinkead Ridge, whose owner came to Adams County, Ohio as they have the closest soils compositions to Bordeaux, outside of France.
That claim was from Kinkead’s owners, Ron Barret and Nancy Bentley, who sold their lauded Oregon vineyards and came to edge of the Ohio River with a mission – make wines worthy of the area’s lost fame. If national and international press is the metric, they succeeded. Their whites were always strong and their red Bordeaux blend, Revelation, has been Ohio’s top wine in every Ohio vs Michigan Wine Clash:
Kinkead was sold to someone who didn’t know what they were doing, the vines froze, and it is now a soybean field. It still exists but the grapes come from Cali, and it is now plonk. Meranda-Nixon in the same area makes good wine. I’d suggest their Norton to any Norton haters:
Kinkead:
Meranda-Nixon:
Doesn’t Ohio (St) always beat Michigan nowadays ![[wink.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/04707e6a7bbb03e0153e349d8a9270d30e1e9525.gif "wink"){kind=small}
I was wondering how they could avoid Pierce’s disease in Ohio - it’s said that every winter, you need at least three consecutive nights with low temperatures at 15F in order to reliably kill all of the Leaf Hopper eggs.
I love a story with a Happy Ending!
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/SMDH.
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Unfortunately not in wine but it’s 2:55 and Michigan football still sucks–just like the last 15 years.
Here’s a new article on dry farming in California (featuring Tegan Passalacqua, Charlie Tsegeletos, Matt Dees, Jason Haas, & Stephen Gliessman):
Civil Eats
“Can Dry Farming Help Save California’s Vineyards?”
by Lela Nargi
October 3, 2019