A SEASON IN THE VINEYARD

By: Bernard T Call (student of Viticulture/Enology Michigan State University)

This adventure in learning about Michigan wine started in the fall of 2001at Michigan State University. This student enrolled in Chemistry and Wine Judging classes for the beginning of a two year program. My personal goals were to learn as much as possible about growing vines in the state and to then become the largest planter in the state.

While taking my first classes I learned the importance of volunteering for field work at the research areas. Michigan State University has three main research areas, Southwest Research station (SWIMREC) and Northwest Research Station near Suttons Bay, Traverse City, and Hort Farm at MSU. The program also has grapevine research going on in commercial vineyards around the west side of the state such as in Fenn Valley.

My first trip was to the Southwest Research where the group of workers stayed in a farmhouse or duplexes and every bed was made with Sparty bed covers. Southwest station is near the town of Coloma which is a fruit growing area. The majority of commercial operations near Coloma are Concord or Niagara vineyards which grow for Welchs Juice. The station has a variety of research trials on Vinifera, Hybrids, and Labrusca. For those who don't know Vinifera is a wine grape, mostly European types such as Pinot Noir, Hybrids would be Chambourcin or Foch, and Labrusca would be Concord or Niagara.

My first trip here was in December 2001 for the start of winter pruning. While most people were bathing in the sun in Florida, MSU viticulture students were freezing there fingers off or getting wind burn in the vineyards. I learned quite a lot about pruning on those cold days from the professor and grad students. The most important lesson being to visualize a properly pruned vine and replicating that look while also choosing healthy wood over bad wood! I believe pruning is very important having seen the results of a properly pruned vine in terms of productive shoots and balanced canopy during the growing season.

Pruning trips began in December and lasts until the end of March. The Concords and Niagara were done first as there were quite a few to do and the season ended with the Vinifera pruning in the spring.
Vinifera vines were done late as to increase survival rates of the canes. Vinifera is more susceptible to damage from low temperatures and therefore are done last.

Starting in January of 2002 Viticulture classes began and this included Horticulture and Botany. Students had the opportunity to propagate vines in the greenhouse, graft scion to rootstock, and build callusing boxes. This was a very busy period of time as students had plants to take care of on a daily basis. Many papers were written and experiments done on propagation of grapevines.

During this period this student also worked in the enology lab where wine and grape samples were being analyzed. I can't say enough about participating or volunteering to work in all areas of the program, especially the trips to research plots. It was very interesting to see the difference in treatments on the vines and the growing patterns between Traverse and Southwest vineyards.

During this part of the program the class took a trip to Canada and upper New York to see vineyards and winery operations. The best part of the trip was the stop at the Geneva research station at Cornell University. It was during this trip that the students were able to meet researchers, tour the station and winery facility, and sit in on faculty meetings. I was able to speak to people who were doing research on Riesling and Pinot Noir that I was very interested in also. The most important lesson I learned from this trip was the close spacing between vines and the use of rootstock with low vigor. The Canadians and the Finger Lakes N.Y. growers are planting more vines per acre closely spaced with mid wire training systems for Vinifera. I also learned the importance of Late Harvest and Ice Wines and the effect on the vine from holding crop this late in season.

As spring came the work at the wine lab and winery slowed down and the outdoor work really pickup. The program was finishing pruning in the Northwest and I was dealing with all the vines I had propagated in the greenhouses getting them acclimated to transplant outdoors. This is also the time of year when plantings are being planned and I was planting two acres in Highland and helping some friends begin planting there vineyard in Lake Leelanau area. I had decided to learn how to grow Riesling and Pinot Noir and so that is the varieties we planted.

Classes continued through the summer at MSU and the students were also busy planting new vines for the program. As summer classes went on some of the students went to work in the vineyards in different parts of the state. I worked three - four days a week for a company on the Mission Peninsula near Traverse City called Farm Mutual.

Farm Mutual is a vineyard and fruit management operation and consults on starting winery operations. The company planted 55 acres of mostly Riesling and Pinot Noir on the Mission Peninsula. While working here I was able to ask a lot of question and see practical use of what I had been learning in the classroom. The vineyard work was not easy and workers lived in tents and swam in Bowers Harbor to clean up. Most of our fellow workers did not speak English so our Spanish was brushed up and was helpful to communicate.

I noticed a lot of things while working on the Mission and visiting vineyards in Leelanau that will save me time and trouble in the future. Canopy management and trellis work were two areas where I spent a lot of hours. I was also able to see effect and advantages of growing tubes.

The growers up north are very sociable and have monthly meetings called the 45th parallel growers meeting. The meeting is held at different vineyards and each month they talk and demonstrate equipment and after words have a cook out and refreshments. This was a great opportunity for a new grower to ask questions and make contacts and friends. As summer progressed I was able to see the changes in the growth of the canopy and grapes.

The spring had a bad frost and it was evident early in the summer where the real damage would occur. The early budding varieties such as Concord received the most damage and it was mainly site specific being the most damage in low lying vineyards. Vinifera along the lake bud late and no real damage was seen, but I did notice bud and cane damage to vinifera and hybrids here around Detroit and Lansing. As summer progressed you could see where the real damage was occurring.

As far as disease and insects the Mission did not have much noticeable disease and only some damage from hornworms. I did notice some damage in the form of crown gall on young vinifera vines around Leelanau. Crown gall is nasty as it splits the bark from the graft union up. Crown gall will slowly strangle your vine in that the transport structure and cells will die. Insects seemed to be more of a problem in the southwest of the state. I noticed Grape Berry Moth and large numbers of Japanese beetles. I tried to learn as much as possible about spray programs, and asked a lot of questions about Integrated Pest Management.

One of the bigger events in the summer was Viticulture days at the Southwest Research Center. The day consisted of research demonstrations and seminars on problems in the vineyards. Later in the day steaks and food and all sorts of wine was served. Growers had a chance to sit around and catch up on what was happening around the state.

One of the most interesting demonstrations was by Farm Mutual as they had purchased a new planting machine from Germany. The machine is towed behind a tractor and has a sub-soiler and allows exact spacing with laser guided lines. I am sure they will have it at next year's viticulture days it is worth a look.

Besides going to classes and working up in the Mission I was able to plant and take care of my vines in Highland. My biggest problem coming from deer eating the new shoots. I also planted nursery rows and the biggest problems here was from weeds. By the end of summer the grapes were looking nice in the north and south and the vinifera here around Detroit were still showing small crops from spring damage.

Fall is definitely the busiest time of the year for anyone in agriculture and this year was especially busy at the MSU research farms.

Delaware was the first variety that was harvested and that was because we planned to make a sparkling wine from this grape. The next varieties were mostly hybrids such as Marechal Foch, Seyval, Frontenac, etc. The Riesling harvest was not very good this year as sour rot was in most clusters and the wet weather around harvest made the berries watery. I did notice some nice Botrytis on the clusters of Riesling in the southwest but mostly we had a lot of sour rot that did not taste or look good. The Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris also had good botrytis in southwest but not in big numbers for special harvest.

I tried to miss as much school as possible without pushing my luck to participate in as many harvest dates as possible. As far as pest and disease, I did notice hornet damage in big numbers in some of the pinot noir and other reds. This made for a lot of extra work separating the damaged portions during crush. I did not get to see the effects of crown gall on the vines in northwest but assume they had smaller crops because of this problem.

Most of my harvest experiences this season came from Fenn Valley, the Southwest research station, and Clarksville station.

Every year I learn something new or try something new during winemaking. This year I am working with late harvest grapes and will be making my first Icewine harvest, and it will probably be soon as the temperatures are starting to fall early this year. I also tried using a oak barrel as my primary fermentor for reds. The Icewines will be made with Vidal and Vignole grapes this year and as far as last month they look good. It will also be interesting to see the effects to vine of letting the clusters hang for Icewine. The Vidal and Vignoles both have a full crop hanging right now. This year will probably end with a crew of us viticulture enthusiasts picking Icewine grapes in the southwest in temperatures of around 15 degrees and staying warm with a flask of Frontenac Port in our pockets.

Bernard T Call

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