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W i n e s & V i n e s A U G U s T 2 0 1 4 55 Clean • Sterilize • Humidify • Bottling Lines • Barrels • Tanks • Floors and Walls • Winery Equipment • Vineyard Equipment "We can do it all" ... ARS/Pressure Washer Company We work well under pressure. 800-735-9277 or www.cleanwinery.com Pressure Washers Barrel Washers and Rinsers Stemware Washers We work well under pressure. Humidifiers Steam Generators ARS_Nov05.qxt 9/23/05 2:12 PM Page 1 COLLINWOOD GRAPE CO. 15741 MANDALAY AVE., CLEVELAND, OHIO 44110 216 451 8697 or 216 598 0504 • collinwoodgrape@aol.com www.collinwoodgrape.com We supply quality grapes to the most discriminating wineries. We also supply fresh juices in pails, drums or 275 gal. totes. For the special "Vintners Reserve" we can offer the best grapes. Direct importer of winemaking equipment from Italy. PREMIUM CALIFORNIA GRAPES Specializing in North Coast-Napa, Sonoma, Lake, Mendocino & Sierra Foothills—El Dorado, Amador, Calaveras. investigate options to reduce or eliminate herbicide use in the vineyard. Twenty years ago the sign of a good vineyardist in the Finger Lakes was to have bare earth beneath the vines. "There was a lot of rut- ting and erosion, with groundwater run- ning down the hillsides," Hunt recalled. Jamie Hawk, Hunt Country's vineyard manager at the time, planted two types of ground cover in a plot of 17 rows of Concord vines. English ground ivy (a shallow-rooted plant that grows no more than 4 inches high) was planted under some rows of vines, and Aurora Gold fes- cue grass (short grass with a shallow root system) was planted both under and between the rows. According to Hunt, "Encouraging the cover crop under the vines definitely reduced vigor, while using the cover crop between the rows only was not detrimen- tal to the vigor. Wall to wall cover crop was a big devigorator. Since Concords in general and this block in particular were sensitive to the competition, I would not recommend it for native varieties in gen- eral. However, it could have a beneficial application to vineyards with excessive vigor, which is often a very difficult prob- lem with hybrids and vinifera varieties." Another early sustainability project was to use bio-diesel fuel to power farm machinery. Art and Joyce Hunt's son Jon- athan, who graduated from Cornell Uni- versity in 2004 and returned to the Finger Lakes after working at wineries in Cali- fornia and New Zealand, launched the project in 2007. He soon found that while bio-diesel fuel works well, it was too time-consuming to collect the waste oil from restaurants, filter it and make the fuel for it to be cost-effective. The Hunts also explored wind power as another source of renewable energy. They installed a vertical-axis wind turbine known as a Windspire and dedicated it in 2009. At 30 feet tall and 4 feet wide, the turbine generated 1.2 kW of power. According to Hunt, it turned out not to be very practical for their location. "We're only one-third of the way up the hill from the lake," Hunt reported. "We get less than half the amount of wind as at the top of the hill." Currently the turbine is not working, and the company that pro- duced it is out of business. Spray foam insulates the basement ceiling. WINES & VINES DIgITAL EDITIoN View this issue on your tablet, smartphone or online at winesandvines.com/digitaledition G R A P E G R O W I N G W I N E M A K I N G