Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/437909
142 Wines&Vines January 2015 vintage 2014 Established in 1940, Paul Mueller Company designs and manufactures stainless steel processing equipment reflecting the superb craftsmanship and strict attention to detail that make our products the most desired among today's prominent winemakers. • Fermentation, storage, champagne, de-juicing, and pomace removal tanks • Premiere stainless-steel wine barrels • Accu-Therm® plate heat exchangers • Temp-Plate® heat transfer surface • Integrated and modular systems • Falling film chillers • Field fabrication • Process piping • Custom design ©2015 Paul Mueller Company 380-10b Fine Wine Begins With Mueller ® Call us at 1-800-MUELLER or email sales@paulmueller.com for all your winemaking needs! tex. most growers reported any- where from 25% to 100% loss in crop for 2014, and many vines died back to the ground. growers north of minneapolis had more loss than those in the southern part of the state. Quality was fair, but not great, as the early season was cool and wet with late-season rains. Weather: the spring was cool and damp, and vineyards did not see needed heat until July 1. July and august were good, but a wet fall caused a lot of sour rot prob- lems for growers. Pests/diseases: No unusual pest problems, but-late season rains did contribute to a fair amount of sour rot around the state. suPPly/demand: most people accepted this year as a write-off and did not change prices, but some reports did have a few winer- ies paying prices 20%-35% above the norm. teChnology/teChniques: Not a lot to report in new equip- ment, but we are seeing a contin- ued increase in vineyard mechanization that is helping growers to be more profitable. Varieties: the primary difficulty for our industry is cold damage, and this year was bad. that said, the varieties sabrevois, Brianna, La Crescent and Louise swenson all did well. oHio David Scurlock Viticulture outreach specialist The ohio State university the quality of the american and French hybrid grapes in ohio was good, coming in with respectable harvest parameters. the yields were good to excellent for the native american grapes, moderate yields for French hybrid and no yields for vinifera grapes. many vinifera vines were killed and will be replanted in 2015. Fortunately, we had several years of excellent quality and yields prior to the 2014 freeze. Weather: above-normal rainfall in the spring and slightly cooler temperatures through the growing season resulted in 159 growing degree-days below the 10-year average. Pests/diseases: growers did a good job with the spray programs. small pockets of downy mildew and insects were not a problem this year. suPPly/demand: grape prices were good for wine grapes due to low or no yields. there was an ex- cess of Concord juice on the market. teChnology/teChniques: the use of hilling up equipment such as the unverferth maximus Disk saved many vinifera vineyards. Varieties: the polar vortex destroyed most of the vinifera early in the winter due to the effect of advective Freezing. minnesota varieties were not affected. BraDLey JohNsoN, WiNeDiamoNDsFiLm.Com machine harvesting in iowa, which is now home to eight harvesting machines.