Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/197145
WineEast Grapegrowing members attended the stakeholder meetings held in North Carolina, Virginia and the Finger Lakes region of New York. Twenty-one individuals from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), Cornell University, the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Maryland, North Carolina State University, Ohio State University and Pennsylvania State University collectively crafted a grant application to the USDA's Specialty Crops Research Initiative in early 2010. The proposed project, "Improved grape and wine quality in a challenging environment: An eastern U.S. model for sustainability and economic vitality" was selected for funding (Grant No. 2010-01183) and was awarded approximately $3.8 million over a five-year period (2011-15). The federal support is matched directly or in-kind by an identical amount of non-federal funding. The project has four main objectives and a number of subobjectives, all of which are aimed at improving the eastern wine industry's production efficiency, productivity and profitability—as well as consumer perceptions of eastern wines. The project's main objectives were to: • evelop applied means of defining and achieving vine balance D under the variable environmental conditions of the eastern United States. • rovide research-based recommendations for optimally matching P grape cultivars with site-specific environmental conditions. • nderstand and capitalize on consumer attitudes toward eastern U wines and wine grape cultivars though market exploration of con- As good As it gets. Natural Corks Champagne Corks Twinline Corks Bartops VISION® Wine Stopper G-Cap® Screw Cap 104 W in e s & V i ne s NOV E M b e r 20 13 Sales Representatives Chris & Liz Stamp info@lakewoodcork.com Lakewood Cork 4024 State Route 14 Watkins Glen, NY 14891 lakewoodcork.com 607-535-9252 607-535-6656 Fax sumer perception/demand, willingness to pay and assessment of wine quality-assurance programs. • mplement a broad range of learning resources to improve grape I and wine quality, inform vineyard site evaluation, decrease production costs, train trainers and workforce labor, and ultimately improve the competitive basis of the eastern wine industry. The project objectives were derived from industry mandates that "vineyard practices to improve grape composition and wine quality" were of paramount importance. While pest management was recognized as a ubiquitous and dynamic concern, our project team primarily comprised viticulturists and enologists, and we chose to limit our objectives to these areas of expertise. Objective 1: Develop applied means of achieving vine balance under variable conditions While droughts sometimes affect grapevines in the eastern U.S., a more common situation is excessive seasonal rain and soil moisture, which stimulates vegetative growth of grapevines. Excessive vegetative growth can negatively impact fruit quality, aggravate disease management and increase canopy-management costs. Large, vigorous vines are, in grower parlance, "unbalanced." Vine balance is a reference to the relative proportion of vine vegetative growth and crop yield. That simple definition can be qualified by consideration of the training system used, the seasonal duration of vegetative growth and the intended fruit quality. We have some useful benchmarks to measure vine bal-