What to Plant, Hybrid, Vinifera or both?

I had an interesting conversation with a friend the other day. They were asking me some questions about the vines we were planting at the vineyard. I explained that we had a mix of hybrids and vinifera. I went on to explain that hybrids came about as a result of breeding grape vines for pest and disease resistance and cultural superiority (drought resistance, later bud break, earlier ripening etc. etc.). We talked about grafting of Vinifera to root stock of other grape vines to make the resultant plant better suited to a particular climate, growing area or conditions or disease/pest resistant. My friend asked if these grafted vines were then classified a hybrids. Good question?

I had never thought of it like that before but it is an interesting perspective.

This was a diversion as our discussion was not so much about the differences between hybrids and Vinifera but why the choice of vines we have in our vineyard. There are so many variables that come together that determine what grape varieties are best suited to one location or another. Temperature, sunlight, moisture, frost free days, soil, humidity, pests all play a role in determining what grapes will grow best at a particular site.

We know that we are at the low end of the heat and frost free days spectrum for growing grapes in BC and this means planting the varieties that are the earliest maturing varieties. We are not sure what the winter low temperatures are so this means having vines that are of various levels of cold hardiness.

I think that all the varieties we have decided to plant will work out alright in one way or another. Most are recolgnized varieites (link to VQA varieites) and it appears thusfar that they should all do well in some years if not all. Now there are about the same number of Hybrid grape varieties as Vinifera varieties on the list of acceptable varieties for VQA designation. So while there are alot of options of what to plant, what is important is which varieties will do best at the site. While the Pinot Noir or Zweigelt may do well on an annual basis they may not ripen to as good of sugar/acid levels that you may find at other warmer, longer season sites. Some years may be quite good while others quite poor. In reality you can expect each year is going to be different than the last with some vintages better than others - but this is with varieties that are properly suited to your site.

There is a grower in the south Okanagan that I was talking to who said that he had to over-crop his Seigerrebe to ensure that it didn't ripen too early. He often has to blend it with Pinot Gris to bring the acid up. Even at the right site Seigerrebe is noted for dropping it's acid very quickly and having a high ph at harvest (this is not always desireable in a Germanic style white wine which Seigerrebe is usually made). If the site is too warm and this grape ripens too early this could lower the quality of these grapes at harvest. He said, if you over crop your vines it takes them longer to ripen, but then you can stretch out harvest to when the temperatures are cooler and this can help retain some of the acid and maintain a lower ph. However, there is much literature that suggests that over-cropping results in a loss in quality and can harm the winter survival of the vine or buds.

So even if you have a site with a lot of heat, you have to match the variety to the site. While there are few grapes that would ripen too early at our site, I expect that if we choose varieties that are marginal ripeners for our site then we can expect more poorer vintages than good vintages over time. We are also drawn to disease resistant varieties and that generally puts us in the camp of hybrids.

While there are certain varieities we'd like to grow, and certain varieties in greater demand (which is a very strong consideration for comercial ventures), in order to grow good quality grapes the choice of what to grow will be decided equally by us to meet our needs and by climate, soil and variety being matched correctly. This will present itself over time.

Increasing Degree Day Accumulations

In the past two years we have recorded approximately 900 and 1000 degree days between May 1st and September 30th. There are actually a few more degree days each year, somewhere in the neighborhood of 25-50 but these fall in the months of April and September and are pretty much outside of the growing season. Those that accumulate after the first good fall frost are really of no importance because the growing season is done after that anyway. However, those accumulated in April can have some impact on the season. Lots of heat in April even 15-20 degree days impact the season in terms of early or late bud break.

Presently our site is completely surrounded by forest. The area that has been cleared is approximately 75 x 105 feet (approx. 0.17 acre) and inside that the vineyard is fenced off at 55 x 100 feet . As mentioned in previous blogs I believe there is somewhat more heat in the centre of the vineyard than in the areas along the forest margins where the temperature data logger is placed. Moving the logger to the centre of the vineyard will give a more accurate picture of the degree day accumulations.

While the site is pretty as it is enclosed by trees, this promotes several detrimental effect on climate of the site including; lowering the potential heat accumulation, increasing the potential for frost due to the cold air dam created by the forest and in turn a slower rise in the soil temperature in the spring.

There is a body of research on these topics, many conducted in British Columbia forest regions. The research has been focused on the local changes in climate in forest vs. clear cut area. The clearings ranged in size from 0.03ha 0.13ha to 1.0ha (approx 0.07 acre to 2.25 acres). The research has revealed that the clear cut area had significantly higher degree day accumulations than the forested areas. This was also related to the clearing size - the larger the clearing the more heat (significantly more heat). They found that over a 5 year period the tree seedlings in the largest opening had the greatest growth. They also found that the winter snow melted up to 5 days sooner on the clear cut areas than forests and quickest in the largest clearings. Some studies also found the soil temperature increased earlier in the spring in the clearings (fastest in the largest clearings) resulting in earlier plant biological activity. While the clearings allowed for more heat to escape the soil at night, there incidence of frost did not change as the slope allowed the cold air to drain away. Other similar research has shown that on flat ground without a slope the clearing can be subject to more frost events. Here is some of the studies;
http://www.forrex.org/publications/FORREXSeries/ss1/paper16.pdf
http://treephys.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/26/1/105.pdf
Improving Air Drainage
Clear cut opening size increases heat units

We've known about this research and what it could mean to our site but before we cleared any more land at our site we wanted to be sure the ground could sustain the plants. This is now evident and we plan to increase the size of the clearing this year to nearly 1 acre. This will take advantage of the slope of the land and the subsequent cold air drainage. It is also hoped that expanding the size of the clearing will increase the degree days accumulation of heat. More importantly the clearing will take advantage of the slope of the land and eliminate the cold air dam that currently exists at the vineyard.

Reducing the night time low temperatures caused by the forest damming up the cold air can change the degree days significantly over the growing season. Raising the night time low as little as 1.0 degree on average at our site would add about 75 more degree days over the period of May to September. This may also help mitigate potential frost damage in spring and fall. Together, the increase in day time heat and raising the night time low air temperatures over the growing season should help the overall degree day accumulations.

Nakusp and Arrow Lakes Grape Potentential

There seems to be more and more interest being generated around the possibilities of growing grapes in Nakusp and the Arrow Lakes valley on south to Edgewood.

There are numerous historical accounts of people growing tree fruits in the area dating as far back as the early 1900's however little knowledge about growing grapes. However, there are numerous more recent accounts of people growing grapes in the area.

Here are some recent accounts of grape growing in the region;
Arrow Lakes News Article About Nakusp Grape Grower.
Arrow Lakes News Article about winery potential
Google Earth Picture of Bench in Nakusp with yard full of grape vines behind.
Grower near Edgewood growing grapes



One way to gauge just how prolific the grape growing potential in the area is would be to walk to streets of the residential areas of Nakusp and the other towns in the Arrow Lakes Valley (Burton, Fauquier, and Edgewood) to look forback yard grape growers. I've done this and there are so many people with grape vines growing up fences or trellises that it is obvious the area can sustain these fruits. Most of the vines in the residential areas I've seen have been Himrod. Many of these vines are old with trunks many inches in diameter. There is a fantastic one (Himrod) that grows up the side of the old red barn at the tree nursery located by the marina in Nakusp.

Himrod is very early green seedless table grape and the nursery owner says the grapes regularly mature at the beginning of September sometimes late August. Himrod has cold temperature tolerance to about -23 and matures in about 130/135 days - bud break to harvest.

Made in Canada Wine

I've been following the issue of some Canadian wineries importing foreign wine, grapes or juice, then vinifying it, bottleing and/or storing it in Canada and then labelling the wine as having some Canadian origin.

Under the rules of the Competition Act enforced by the Competition Bureau, so long as there was some form of manufacturing or value added by a process in Canada, such as vinification of foreign grape juice, or bottling and storage (cellaring) the product could be marketed as Made in Canada.

Problem here is the grapes/juice or wine being used to make these so called "Canadian Wines" are from foreign sources. The grapes/juice or wine is so cheap that utilizing these sources of materials appear to be hurting the Canadian wine grape producers. This is especially so in Ontario.

A similar problem was happening a few years back with the Canadian diamond industry. People could import rough (raw) diamonds from foreign sources such as South Africa, Brazil, or the Nigeria then cut and polish the diamonds in Canada and in turn market them as Made in Canada. The processing of the diamond in Canada was what allowed them to be labelled as Made in Canada. Many thought these foreign diamonds were in fact Canadian mined diamonds because of the Made in Canada label. Often the label had a maple leaf or some arctic image associated to it which further induced one to believe the diamond was Canadian.

It is probable that the same thing happens with wine that is labelled as made in Canada or Canadian but made with foreign grapes. For instance in many liguor/wine stores the wines are separated by county of origin - U.S, South Africa, Australia, Frace, Canada etc. These wines that are made with foreign grapes but vinified in Canada are typically found in the Canadian section of the store. This furthers ones perception that these are actually Canadian wines despite that the grapes/juice was not produced in Canada.

The Competition Bureau changed the interpretation here and now only allows diamonds produced in Canada to be labelled as Canadian diamonds. See link.

I don't have a problem with the importation of foreign grapes being vinifyed in Canada and sold as wine in Canada or even the foreign wine. I'd just like the labelling to be very specific to ensure that no one mistakes the wine for that made with grapes grown in Canada. If the country of orgin label is not protected for grape production then why bother labelling what country the wine/grapes come from. However, apparently this is not an issue unique to Canada. Search the internet and you'll see.

Perhaps the same should be done with wine as was done with diamonds and that only wine made with grapes produced in Canada could be labelled as being Canadian.