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W i n e s & V i n e s D e C e M b e r 2 0 1 4 47 best of news Early 2014 Grape Harvest Begins by Andrew Adams, July 29, 2014 Where grapegrowing is concerned, Mother Nature is calling the shots. This year she interrupted winery staff during their summer vacations, calling them back home to start harvest a full two weeks earlier than normal. When we posted our best-read breaking news story of the year on winesandvines.com, "Early 2014 Grape Harvest Begins" on July 29, California wineries were dust- ing off harvest equipment and starting to haul in Chardonnay and Pinot Noir for their sparkling and rosé programs. July start dates weren't exclusive to Temecula and the South Coast, either. Winegrowers from Sonoma and Napa counties also told Wines & Vines that harvest was under way by the end of July. Steve Matthiasson picked Syrah for his Matthiasson Family Vineyards on July 28, declaring these varieties riper on that date than they had been at the same time in 2013. He correctly pre- dicted Bordeaux varieties such as Cab- ernet and Merlot would be ready for picking a full month ahead of schedule. For more information about the 2014 wine grape harvest, watch for our Vin- tage 2014 Report in the January issue of Wines & Vines. best of Columns Will Barrels Go the Way of Floppy Disks?" by Tim Patterson, April 2014 The "best of" column among readers of Wines & Vines' 2014 digital editions was penned by the late Tim Patterson. Known by readers as "the man in the hat," Patterson wrote the Inquiring Winemaker column for Wines & Vines for 11 years before he died May 17, 2014. In the best-read column of 2014, Patterson asked the question, "Will Bar- rels Go the Way of Floppy Disks?" The April 2014 column analyzes the advantages of traditional oak barrels and oak barrel alternatives. And while Patterson acknowledges, "Barrels are a hard act to follow," he concedes that barrel alternatives "give the winemaker more control of dosages and exposure." Plus, they cost a fraction of the price of oak barrels. Some of Patterson's supplier sources boast that they air dry and toast their oak adjuncts just like coopers do. Pur- ists, meanwhile, theorize that the shape of traditional oak barrels add a certain je ne sais quoi to the practice of élevage. As always, Patterson's reasoned points are worth considering. Read his penultimate column on page 36 of the April 2014 issue. best of teCh review Villa San-Juliette Expands Estate Production by Andrew Adams, July 2014 Star power may have been one draw for our best-read Technical Review of 2014, calculated based on pageviews of the Wines & Vines digital edition. "Villa San-Juliette Expands Estate Produc- tion" recounts the construction and operation of this 60,000-case winery (25,000 cases are bottled under the Villa San-Juliette label) owned by English television producers Ken Warwick and Nigel Lythgoe, whose credits include "American Idol" and "So You Think You Can Dance." The quickstep was winemaker Matt Ortman's dance of choice during 2013, when he was charged with moving Villa San-Juliette's production from a custom-crush facility to a more perma- nent home north of Paso Robles, Calif. "We were a brand new team work- ing in a brand new winery with fruit that none of us had worked with be- fore," Ortman told Wines & Vines associate editor Andrew Adams. Learn what equipment Villa San- Juliette uses to make its estate-grown wines starting on page 40 of the July 2014 issue. best of wine east Winter Survival of Vidal Blanc Vines for Ice Wine Production by Imed Dami, April 2014 An article about raising Vidal Blanc for ice wine production drew the most attention from digital edition readers, with the April 2014 story garner- ing the most pageviews of any feature to run in the Wine East section during 2014. Associate professor and viticulture extension agent Imed Dami of The Ohio State University wrote this well-illustrated story, which outlines what makes Vidal Blanc a popular cultivar choice for ice wines and describes an experi- ment to uncover a relation between cluster thinning and winter injury. Through his research, Dami con- cluded that 40 was the optimum num- ber of clusters for this hybrid cultivar based on crop weight, pruning weight and crop-load ratios. It was also dis- covered that pruning and cluster thin- ning did not affect winter hardiness of Vidal Blanc vines. Read more about Dami's experiment starting on page 78 of the April 2014 issue of Wines & Vines. Villa San-Juliette 78 W I N E S & V I N E S A P R I L 2 0 1 4 WineEast V idal Blanc, or Vidal (Ugni Blanc x Rayon D'Or), is a white grape variety that belongs to the group of highly productive hybrids that tend to overcrop, which results in reduced growth and lower fruit and wine quality. Vidal's propensity to overcrop has been attributed to its high bud fruitfulness and large clusters. Research has shown that the best way to manage this variety is with bal- anced pruning and cluster thinning—also referred to as "balanced cropping," a term coined by Dr. Stan Howell from Michigan State University. Vidal has been widely planted in eastern and midwestern states due to its many positive attributes: moderate cold hardiness (more cold hardy than Vitis vinifera variet- ies), spring frost avoidance (due to late bud break), bunch rot resistance and especially its versatile and desirable wine style and quality. In the northeastern United States and Canada, Vidal acreage has expanded since the early 1990s because of its use in ice wine production. Its high yields, thick berry skin, high acidity and fruitiness make it particularly suited for ice wine. Grapes for ice wine production are left to hang on the grapevines long past their typical commercial maturity and are not harvested until they freeze on the vine at an air tem- perature of 18°F or lower. Unlike in warmer regions, "hang time" in the cold regions of the northeast and Canada results in ideal conditions for ice wine production. However, Vidal growers have always been concerned about the impact of "hang time" Winter Survival of Vidal Blanc Vines for Ice Wine Production Study investigates the effect of cluster thinning and pruning on crop level By Imed Dami Grapegrowing Wine East HIGHLIGHTS • Vidal growers in eastern and midwestern states have always been concerned about the impact of "hang time" on vines for ice wine production. • This article describes a study concerning the impact of different crop levels and harvest dates on yield, fruit quality and primarily the winter hardiness of Vidal grapevines. • No adverse impact was found on bud cold-hardiness when balanced pruning was applied in tandem with cluster thinning to avoid overcropping. Vidal Blanc clusters are left to hang for ice wine production and typically are picked in December, when temperature drops to 18 o F. b e s t o f 2 0 1 4