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April 2015 WINES&VINES 77 L ancaster, Pa.—New England has been buried in snow this winter, but until Feb- ruary arrived, other regions in the East and Midwest had had a somewhat "normal" season. In general, vineyards didn't experience variations in temperature as the vines hard- ened after harvest. Growers in some areas took a lesson from the previous year and did a better job of preparing for cold weather by hilling up around vines. According to Nick Ferrante, winemaker at Ferrante Winery in Geneva, Ohio, it was even colder this February than last. "While it's been really cold—it was between -21° and -23° on Monday night (Feb. 16)—we have a lot of snow, 1.5 to 2 feet, and we hilled up the vines last fall, with as much as a foot of dirt on some." On the night of Feb. 20 the temperature wasn't quite as cold, registering about -12° to -15° F. Ferrante told Wines & Vines, "It's been colder in Ohio than in Siberia. We just hope to have less damage than we did last year." Mike Williams, owner and winemaker of the Winery at Versailles, in Versailles, Ohio, reported that until early February, the winter in western Ohio had been relatively mild. But "the last two to three weeks have been brutally cold and windy," he said. "The temperatures ratcheted down and stayed down." The low temperature Feb. 20 was -6° F. The Finger Lakes region of New York has not been as cold this winter as it was last year. Hans Walter- Peterson, viticultural extension specialist with the Finger Lakes G r a p e P r o g r a m a t Cornell University, c o m m e n t e d t h a t while temperatures have been below nor- mal, the lows of -15° to -20° from 2014 have not been repeated. "And this year, we have 2 to 3 feet of snow around the vines, so the trunks are insulated. It's been too cold and windy to prune, and we don't know a whole lot yet about the amount of damage. But I'm more optimistic than I was last year." He added, "Growers think that if we come through this winter in decent shape, there will be a market for New York grapes in other regions in the East." On the morning of Feb. 20, the low tempera- ture in Geneva, N.Y., was -2°, while in Watkins Glen, at the southern end of Seneca Lake, the temperature reached -7° F. Of greater con- cern was a tempera- ture of -24° reported at the Lake Erie Research Station in Fredonia, N.Y., earlier in the week. "That's a Con- cord-killing tempera- ture," Walter-Peterson stated. Overall, the 2014- 15 winter has been milder in Virginia than the previous year. Tony Wolf, viticulture extension specialist at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Winchester, Va., commented in his Feb. 17 Viticulture Notes supplement "that our com- mon vinifera varieties that went into the 2014- 15 winter in reasonably good physiological condition will not sustain appreciable trunk or bud injury late this week if temperatures re- main above 0° F toward southern Virginia and above about -3° F in northern Virginia." Wolf stated, "Temperatures over the past week have been much lower than normal, with repeated dips into single-digit temperatures and daytime highs hardly rising above freez- ing—particularly in northern Virginia. While these temperatures have been much lower than normal for mid-February, they have provided a positive, reinforcing maintenance of the vines' midwinter cold hardiness levels. We want low, but non-damaging, temperatures at this time of year, and daily lows in the 5° to 15° F range are ideal for well-managed variet- ies that are reasonably well adapted to Vir- ginia's winters: the Cabernets, Chardonnay, Petit Verdot and Viognier, for example." The temperature in Charlottesville at 6 a.m. on Feb. 20 was 0° F. The 2013-14 winter cold temperatures in Iowa reduced the grape crop by 30% to 40%, and quite a few vines died to the ground, ac- cording to Mike White, extension viticulture specialist at Iowa State University. White re- ported to Wines & Vines, "This winter has been very easy on the vines. November temps aver- aged approximately 8° F below normal, allowing our vines to acclimate well before going into December/January. December temperatures were approximately 5° F above normal. January ended up being our 51st warmest month in the past 143 years of records. Our January coldest temperature was -25° F in northwest Iowa.… We did have a warm up in the past two weeks of January, but I don't think it was warm enough long enough to de-acclimate our vines." —Linda Jones McKee Wine East Covering Eastern North America "It's been colder in Ohio than in Siberia. We just hope to have less damage than we did last year." —Nick Ferrante, Ferrante Winery 'Siberian Express' Brings Winds, Low Temperatures to East and Midwest Justin Simon of Ferrante Winery carries away segments of top wire-trained Vidal Blanc, the trunks of which were killed to the grafting point during the 2014 polar vortex. The vineyard and winery experienced frigid temperatures once again this February, when winemaker Nick Ferrante reported lows of -23° F. NICK FERRANTE