Veraison to Harvest. Around New York... Statewide Vineyard Crop Development Update #7 October 16, 2015 Edited by Tim Martinson and Chris Gerling

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1 Veraison to Harvest Statewide Vineyard Crop Development Update #7 October 16, 2015 Edited by Tim Martinson and Chris Gerling Around New York... Statewide (Tim Martinson) With the end in sight, our team processed 24 fruit samples this week (Fruit Composition Table, p ), including 7 Cabernet Franc, 11 Riesling, and 2 Merlot blocks along with a smattering of other varieties (one block each of Catawba, Concord, Corot Noir, Noiret, Traminette, and Vidal blanc). As blocks get harvested, average fruit composition indices get a little harder to interpret. Remaining Cab Franc blocks have similar brix (21.5) and acidity (6.8 g/l) as last year; The two LI Merlot blocks have higher sugars (22.1 vs 20.3 brix), but equivalent TA (5.7 g/l) to last year; and remaining Riesling blocks have 0.6 brix higher soluble solids and 1.3 g/l lower TAs than in It s all ready to harvest, and we anticipate most will be harvested by next week. If there are samples submitted next week, we will hold the numbers until the following week, and skip a week of publication before we put together our final Veraison to Harvest issue on October 30. This week, see Chris Gerling s article about extending Sustainable Practices to the winery sector, and my brief summary about harvest activity in our research projects. Happy harvesting, and we ll try to summarize the season across New York two weeks from now. Finger Lakes (Hans Walter-Peterson) The end of the 2015 harvest in the Finger Lakes is in sight. While some growers and wineries still have many tons of grapes to bring in, there are a number of places that are reaching the end of their harvest seasons this week (or already have). For a number of growers and wineries, this is one of the earliest ends to harvest that they have seen, if not their earliest ever. Concord harvest is still chugging along, but will be wrapping up for most growers by this time next week. Yields have been closer to average this year after two of the largest crops ever over the past two seasons. Berry Multicolored Asian Lady Beetles (MALB) moved into the fruit remaining in our Riesling block at the NYS Agricultural Experiment Station this week - and into other remaining blocks (See Hans Walter-Peterson's article below). Photo by Tim Martinson size is helping to keep yield numbers up, with average berry weights from both the Finger Lakes and Lake Erie samples averaging between 3.6 and 3.9 grams per berry, well above the more typical 3.0 grams that they usually weigh. The majority of Riesling blocks have been harvested by now, but more will continue to arrive from later ripening sites for the next week or so. Later season reds have been harvested this week as well, including Cabernet Franc and Syrah. Based on some recent discussions and stops this fall, this could end up being an excellent year for Cabernet Franc in the Finger Lakes. Unfortunately, there isn t enough of it to satisfy the wineries needs this year. This has been the case with a number of vinifera varieties this year, including Riesling, Pinot noir, and Pinot gris, thanks mostly to the harsh reality of two hard winters back to back. While they re not a problem everywhere, we have been seeing higher numbers of Multi-colored Asian Lady Beetles (MALB) in some blocks this year, including in a couple of our own trial sites. The defense chemical that these insects release when they are disturbed (or run through a crusher) has a very low sensory threshold, so it doesn t take many to have an impact on wine Page 1

2 quality. In places where they are showing up, wineries and growers are spending extra time to sort fruit to remove any MALB beforehand. Night temperatures are forecast to be below freezing this weekend, so depending on how cold it gets, some vineyards with fruit still hanging may reach the end of their ripening period in just a few days. This would be an early first-frost for us, but thanks to the early ripening season this year, it will have less impact on harvest than it might otherwise. Long Island (Alice Wise) On Long Island, the temperatures have held steady with upper 60 s to low 70 s for the last few weeks, making for delightful harvest weather. The weekend is predicted to be highs in the 50 s, a sign of the last wave of harvest. In the research vineyard, the later reds were picked this week: Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Syrah, Barbera, Sangiovese, Lemberger, Petit Verdot and Cabernet Sauvignon. The last two perhaps could have waited a week. On the other hand, the local wildlife has been enjoying all the red fruit on a nightly basis so we decided to cut our losses. We use side netting that is well fastened top and bottom but the critters still manage to infiltrate it. Merlot fruit was whistle clean, no signs of cluster rot. This was somewhat surprising as there have been several rainy periods recently. Malbec had some sour rot with clone 4 much cleaner than clone 6. There were a few clusters of Sangiovese, a large clustered variety, with healthy but clean Botrytis infections. Lemberger clusters were loose, bordering on scraggly. These vines suffered a bit of bud damage last winter. Of all these varieties, Barbera wins the taste award. Berries were luscious and flavorful with enough acidity to nicely balance the high sugar. Overall, this harvest has progressed at a steady but relaxed pace compared to other years. With minimal cluster rot and good flavors, there are great expectations for wine quality. Lake Erie (Luke Haggerty) Over the past week many of the Concord and Niagara vineyards have transitioned from full green canopies to thin yellow canopies signaling that the vines are beginning to shut down. As vines begin to drop their leaves we get the first good look at how the canes matured. During the majority of shoot development most areas had plenty of moisture resulting in adequate vine growth and long internodes. However, sites with heavy clay soils did not fare as well from the overly wet June and appear to have been stunted under these conditions. The past week has been cool, windy, and rainy. It seems that we are at the point of the season when the air temperature is colder than the water temperature of Lake Erie. When this happens, the region starts to receive lake effect rain and lake effect snow and all of the cloudy windy conditions that accompany these events. I m hoping we don t see snow anytime soon. The forecast is calling for a cold wet weekend, but warming up again next week. The Concord harvest is nearing its end. Grower s co-op shut down on Oct. 15th and National Grape co-op is planning to finish pressing later next week. Here at CLEREL, we picked our last load of Concords Thursday with overall yields slightly higher than our estimations. Hudson and Champlain Valleys (Jim O Connell and Anna Wallis) Hudson Valley. The season is drawing to a close in the Hudson Valley. The harvest has passed the peak, with most of the earlier and mid-season varieties harvested. Those left are the later maturing varieties (e.g., Riesling, Cabernet franc, Cabernet sauvignon, and Corot noir). This week at the Hudson Valley lab, Lemberger, Chelois, and Hibernal (a German hybrid from Geisenheim) were harvested. Lemberger and Hibernal suffered heavy bird injury in some panels, but overall looked good. Fruit quality on Chelois was good. However, there were an overabundance of clusters and size was small. Next year we will have to remember to drop some clusters early in the season. Weather reports are predicting a cool down for later this week, as well as a possible frost. It also looks as though some of my colleagues in the Continued on p 10 Page 2

3 Green Wineries for Red and White Wines Chris Gerling The Cornell Enology Extension Program collaborates with engineers at RIT to put together a Sustainable Practices workbook for NY wineries. At about this time in 2014, I wrote about the beginnings of our sustainability workbook for winery operations. Thanks to a number of cooperators, we have made considerable progress over the past twelve months. As content is circulated and we get closer to a working draft, I d like to put out a call for your help. There are a number of areas where feedback from industry has been, is and will continue to be vital to the success of this project. We re trying to create a worthwhile resource as opposed to just extra work. Below: the current situation and a few different ways you can contribute. During last year s harvest we collected weekly water usage data from five Finger Lakes wineries. We are grateful to the owners and staff of the cooperating cellars and also to FLCC student Francesca DeLuca, coordinator of the meter readings. Using this data and more that has been collected over the past few years, we hope to establish baselines that can give regional wineries a realistic idea of what normal usage might look like. More information is always better, however, so if you happen to have water meters in your production facility (yours or a from a municipal system), we would love to include it. At this point we are interested in just three numbers: 1) water used during harvest, 2) water used annually and 3) gallons/ cases of wine produced in the cellar during the year. Please contact me if you think you have that information, or even just some of it. We are modeling the workbook after VineBalance, the vineyard sustainability resource developed by a consortium of cooperators throughout New York State. Like VineBalance, we hope to create a self-assessment tool that can be used by the industry to recognize sustainable practices already being practiced and promote the adoption of new ones. To this end, we would like to hear feedback from VineBalance users. Tim Martinson was just given a well-deserved award from the College of Agriculture and Life Science based in large part on his leadership of Flow Meters. Measuring water use in wineries by installing flow meters is one of the first steps toward increasing sustainability in the winery Photo by Chris Gerling the VineBalance project, so I m not trying to knock VineBalance. I m just trying to include as few bugs as possible in the next update, in the parlance of our times. Acknowledging that this is a winery book and VineBalance was for vineyards, if you have any input you d like to provide, let me know. We have partnered with the excellent people at the Rochester Institute of Technology s Pollution Prevention Institute, and at this moment Susan Spencer, Patricia Donohue, Dave Fister and Gene Park are giving this book the engineering horsepower and modern standards compliance credibility that it will need to be a worthwhile tool. Our goal is to have a draft to share with the industry when we hold our next advisory committee meeting in January. We will then do an unveiling at BEV NY where we will be looking for your initial impressions and also pilot cooperators to testdrive the book next harvest. Last but not least, I would like to acknowledge Peter FitzRandolph of Finger Lakes Sustainable Strategies for his contributions to the project. Peter lays out the business case in the workbook but also helped get the ball rolling when it still was a lot more uphill than down. So that s where we areight now. Thanks to all the people who have helped get us to where we are at this point, and congratulations again to Tim and the whole VineBalance consortium for creating a model worth copying. Please let me know if you have water data or VineBalance feedback. We will begin reaching out for beta testing of the whole book in early Best wishes for a safe harvest wrap-up. Page 3

4 Research Plots Harvested Across New York Several Cornell research and extension programs rely on cooperators with commercial vineyards to carry out research and extension projects. Other projects are completed on-station at research farms including the Cornell Lake Erie Research and Extension Laboratory (Portland, NY), The Long Island Horticultural Research and Extension Center (Riverhead), The Baker Farm (Willsboro, NY), Cornell Horticulture s Lansing Research farm (E. Cayuga Lake), and the NYS Agricultural Experiment Station (Geneva, NY). Clonal Riesling Evaluation. Hans Walter- Peterson, CCE Finger Lakes Grape Program, is comparing performance of several Riesling clones at several field sites in the Finger Lakes with cooperators Hermann Wiemer Vineyards (W. Seneca lake), Boundary Breaks (E. Seneca Lake, Lodi), and Konstantin Frank vineyards (E. Seneca Lake, Hector). This project is part of an employee Ph. D. program Hans is undergoing with Cornell faculty member Justine Vanden Heuvel. Cover crops to address soil health. Luke Haggerty of the Lake Erie Regional Grape Extension Program has established trials of several different cover crops for row centers this year to address nutrient cycling, soil health, and weed suppression to improve the long term productivity of Concord vineyards. Daikon Radish (below) grows rapidly, and the taproot recycles nutrients and can reduce soil compaction. Extension technician Scott Ebert holds two tillable radishes taken out of the cover crop experiment at CLEREL in Portland, NY. Photo by Luke Haggerty Harvesting Riesling clonal trial at Merwarth vineyard, part of Hermann J. Weimar winery and nursery. Photo by Hans Walter-Peterson Page 4

5 Cover crops planted under the trellis in Sheldrake Point Cabernet Franc vineyard : (A) Dwarf Chicory; (B) Glyphosate; (C) Fescue; (D) Daikon Radish; (E) Alfalfa; (F) Vine with Alfalfa cover crop Photos by Tim Martinson Under Trellis Cover Crops. Justine Vanden Heuvel s graduate student Ming-Yi Chou, a native of Taiwan, harvested Riesling with different under-the-trellis vegetation (glyphosate, cultivation, native vegetation) from plots at Sheldrake Point Vineyards last weekend. This week he will harvest Cabernet Franc at Sheldrake with different cover crop treatments (Daikon Radish, Chicko ry, fescue, and glyphosate). Under-trellis cover crops can moderate excessive vigor and reduce the need for canopy manipulations to manage Ming-Ye Chou with cover crop plants seeded under the trellis in Cabernet Franc vineyard at Sheldrake Point, Interlaken. Shown is Daikon Radish (left) and Dwarf Chickory (right) Photo by Tim Martinson vine growth. Ming-Yi will also be using cuttingedge analytical techniques to profile how the different cover crop treatments affect composition the soil microbiome, or the microbial communities present in vineyard soils. Technicians Bill Wilsey (left) and Steve Lerch (right) joined MingYe (Center) and other students last Sunday for the harvest. Photo by Tim Martinson Page 5

6 Fruit Composition Report - 10/16/2015 Samples reported here were collected on Monday, October 12. Where appropriate, sample data from 2014, averaged over all sites is included. Tables from 2014 are archived at We are again reporting berry weight, brix, titratable acidity and ph, and yeast assimilable nitrogen (YAN). Cabernet Franc Finger Lakes 10/12/2015 E. Seneca Finger Lakes 10/12/2015 W. Seneca Finger Lakes 10/12/2015 Cayuga HARVEST Finger Lakes 10/12/2015 Wayne County Finger Lakes 10/12/2015 Geneva Finger Lakes 10/12/2015 Dresden HARVEST Hudson Valley 10/12/2015 HVRL Highland Long Island 10/12/ Long Island 10/12/ Average 10/12/ Prev. Sample 10/5/ Average 10/14/ Catawba Finger Lakes 10/12/2015 Keuka Prev Sample 10/5/2015 Keuka Sample 10/14/2014 Keuka Cayuga White Finger Lakes 9/28/2015 Keuka HARVEST.... Finger Lakes 9/28/2015 Cayuga HARVEST.... Finger Lakes 9/28/2015 Dresden HARVEST.... Final Sample 9/21/ at Harvest 9/23/ Chardonnay Finger Lakes 9/21/2015 Cayuga HARVEST.... Finger Lakes 9/21/2015 W. Seneca HARVEST.... Finger Lakes 9/28/2015 Dresden Cl 96 HARVEST.... Long Island 9/28/2015 LI-03 HARVEST.... Final Sample 9/28/ Average 10/7/ Concord Finger Lakes 10/12/2015 Keuka Finger Lakes 10/12/2015 W. Canandaigua HARVEST Lake Erie 10/12/2015 HARVEST Lake Erie 10/12/2015 HARVEST Average 10/12/ Prev Sample 10/5/ Sample 10/14/ Corot Noir Finger Lakes 10/12/2015 Dresden Prev Sample 10/5/2015 Dresden At Harvest 9/30/2014 Teaching Vyd Page 6

7 Frontenac Champlain Valley 10/5/2015 Willsboro HARVEST Thousand Islands 10/5/2015 Clayton HARVEST Thousand Islands 10/5/2015 Clayton HARVEST Thousand Islands 10/5/2015 Clayton HARVEST Final Sample) 10/5/2015 Clayton Frontenac Gris Champlain Valley 9/28/2015 Willsboro HARVEST Finger Lakes 9/21/2015 Trumansburg HARVEST Final Sample 9/21/2015 Willsboro Prev Sample 9/21/ Gruner Veltliner Finger Lakes 9/14/2015 Dresden HARVEST Final Sample 9/8/2015 Dresden at Harvest 9/16/2014 Teaching Vyd La Crescent Finger Lakes 9/21/2015 Geneva HARVEST Thousand Islands 9/21/2015 Clayton HARVEST Champlain Valley 9/21/2015 Willsboro HARVEST Finger Lakes 9/21/2015 Trumansburg HARVEST Final Sample 9/21/ Lemberger Finger Lakes 10/12/2015 Keuka HARVEST Finger Lakes 10/5/2015 Dresden HARVEST Average Prev. Average 10/5/ At Harvest 10/14/ Malbec Long Island 10/5/2015 HARVEST Prev Sample 10/5/2015 LI Sample 10/14/2014 LI Marquette Champlain Valley 9/28/2015 Willsboro HARVEST.... Finger Lakes 9/28/2015 Keuka HARVEST.... Finger Lakes 9/28/2015 Trumansburg HARVEST.... Finger Lakes 9/28/2015 Dresden 3309 HARVEST.... Finger Lakes 9/28/2015 Dresden Own HARVEST.... Lake Erie 9/28/2015 HARVEST.... Thousand Islands 9/28/2015 Clayton HARVEST Thousand Islands* 9/28/2015 Clayton HARVEST Thousand Islands 9/28/2015 Clayton HARVEST.... Final Sample 9/28/ at Harvest 9/2/2014 Harvest * 2 nd crop sample not included in average, late due to spring frost Page 7

8 Merlot Hudson Valley 10/12/2015 HVRL Highland HARVEST Long Island 10/12/ Long Island 10/12/ Average 10/12/ Prev Sample 10/5/ Average 10/7/ Niagara Lake Erie 9/28/2015 Portland HARVEST Lake Erie 9/21/2015 Fredonia HARVEST Final Sample 9/21/ at Harvest 9/23/2014 Portland Noiret Finger Lakes 10/5/2015 Wayne County Hudson Valley 10/5/2015 HVRL Highland HARVEST Average Prev Sample 10/5/ Sample 10/14/ Pinot Noir Finger Lakes 9/28/2015 E. Seneca Harvested.... Final Sample 9/21/2015 E. Seneca at Harvest 9/23/2014 E. Seneca Riesling Finger Lakes 10/12/2015 E. Seneca HARVEST Finger Lakes 10/12/2015 W. Seneca Finger Lakes 10/12/2015 E. Seneca HARVEST Finger Lakes 10/12/2015 CL 90 Cayuga HARVEST Finger Lakes 10/12/2015 Keuka Finger Lakes 10/12/2015 W. Seneca HARVEST Finger Lakes 10/12/2015 W. Canandaigua HARVEST Finger Lakes 10/12/2015 Wayne County Finger Lakes 10/12/2015 Geneva Finger Lakes 10/12/2015 E. Seneca/Cl Finger Lakes 10/12/2015 E. Seneca/ CL Finger Lakes 10/12/2015 Dresden Finger Lakes 10/12/2015 E. Seneca/Cl Hudson Valley 10/12/2015 HVRL Highland Long Island 10/12/2015 HARVEST Average 10/12/ Prev. Sample 10/5/ Sample 10/14/ Sauvignon Blanc Long Island HARVEST Final Sample 9/14/2015 LI at Harvest 9/16/2014 LI Page 8

9 Seyval Blanc Finger Lakes 9/8/2015 Cayuga HARVEST Lake Erie 9/8/2015 Fredonia HARVEST Final Sample 8/31/ at Harvest 9/9/ St Croix Finger Lakes 9/15/2015 Geneva HARVEST Final Sample 9/8/2015 Geneva Traminette Finger Lakes 10/12/2015 Keuka Hudson Valley 10/12/2015 HVRL Highland HARVEST Average 10/12/ Prev Sample 10/5/2015 Keuka Sample 10/14/ Vidal Blanc Finger Lakes 10/12/2015 Dresden Prev Sample 10/05/2015 Dresden At Harvest 10/14/2014 Teaching Vyd Vignoles Finger Lakes 9/28/2015 VSP Keuka HARVEST.... Finger Lakes 10/5/2015 W. Seneca HARVEST Final Sample 9/28/2015 W. Seneca at Harvest 9/30/ Zweigelt Finger Lakes HARVEST Final Sample 9/14/2015 Dresden at Harvest 9/16/2014 Teaching Vyd Page 9

10 Sign of the Season Continued from p 2 Fall colors include Senescing grape leaves in this Niagara (r) and Concord (l) vineyard on West Seneca Lake. Photo by Tim Martinson Northern and Western parts of the state may see some snow showers! Depending on the severity of the frost and the weather following it, this cool down may signal the end of the season for some grape growers. Champlain/Northeastern NY. Harvest is also wrapping up in Northeastern NY. The majority of harvest was complete by the end of last week, so there few updates to report about the harvest this week. Things have shifted to cleaning up, winterizing sprayers, and moving indoors for fruit processing and winemaking. Just in time too! Temperatures were warm and clear at the beginning of the week. But rain is in the forecast all day Friday and then temperatures will drop off this weekend, reaching lows around 30 F. Snow showers are possible Saturday. Wow! Hard to believe just a month ago we were saying how unseasonably warm it was. This newsletter was made possible with support from the New York Wine and Grape Foundation, the Lake Erie Regional Grape Program, Inc. and the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station at Cornell University. Veraison to Harvest is a joint publication of: Cornell Enology Extension Program Statewide Viticulture Extension Program Long Island Grape Program Finger Lakes Grape Program Lake Erie Regional Grape Program Eastern New York Regional Horticulture Program Copyright 2015 Cornell University The information, including any advice or recommendations, con-tained herein is based upon the research and experience of Cornell Cooperative Extension personnel. While this information constitutes the best judgement/opinion of such personnel at the time issued, neither Cornell Cooperative Extension nor any representative thereof makes any representation or warrantee, express or implied, of any particular result or application of such information, or regarding any product. Users of any product are encouraged to read and follow product-labeling instructions and check with the manu-facturer or supplier for updated information. Nothing contained in this information should be interpreted as an endorsement expressed or implied of any particular product. Page 10