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April 2017 WINES&VINES 75 WINE EAST GRAPEGROWING ITASCA AND PETITE PEARL: HOW DO THE WINES TASTE? The tasting seminars for Itasca and Petite Pearl at the Cold Climate Conference held mid-February sold out quickly. But that didn't prevent dozens of other attendees from packing the room—some sitting on the floor and others standing—to learn more about these new, much-buzzed-about cold-hardy grapes. And if the "oohs" and "aahs" emanating from the tasters were any indication, the buzz is justified. "After tasting (the white variety Itasca), I'm more enthused than ever," said Steve Johnson, owner/winemaker of the Parallel 44 and Door 44 wineries in Wisconsin. "Wow," said Irv Geary, owner of the Wild Mountain winery in Taylors Falls, Minn., after tasting four samples of the red variety Petite Pearl. "I don't think it's been fully experienced by wineries. When they experience it, Petite Pearl will explode." The tasters sipped two versions of Itasca, released last April by the University of Minnesota, and four of Petite Pearl, a 2009 release from Hugo, Minn., hybridizer Tom Plocher. Both have a chance to be game-changers, largely because of lower acidity, more complexity and greater balance than previous cold-hardy grapes. "Itasca is lighter, more delicate, lower in acid—and because of this, it has the potential to spread our range of wine profiles," said Steve Zeller, who has planted 750 vines at his Parley Lake winery in Waconia, Minn. "It also seems to be the hardiest of the hybrids (the University of Minnesota has) developed." Geary is just as bullish on Petite Pearl, grafting 240 vines this winter to go with 350 already planted. "It's got nice body. It's easy to work with in the winery," he said. "The flavors are nice, a deeper fruit flavor, not a single high-explosive fruit like Frontenac. It's got a real good mouthfeel, real good tannins for a Minnesota grape." Fellow grower Joy Hoppe, owner of Grassworks Vines in Sartell, Minn., is another ardent fan. "I'm excited. I love it. It's one of the few grapes that survived the nasty late frost last spring. We really like the later bud break." Petite Pearl also can be made into a variety of styles, Plocher said in his presentation—fruity dry reds with shorter maceration; elemen- tal-style dry reds with long maceration (less fruit, more spice and mushroom); a rosé with great color, fruit and body. "All of them," he added, "have a good balance of acidity, alcohol and tannin." A closer look Petite Pearl is a half-sibling of the Marquette grape released in 2006 by the University of Minnesota, sharing MN 1094 as a parent (in this case, with an Elmer Swenson hybrid known as ES 4-7-26). Plocher described it as having "rather tough skins, good resistance to mildew and splitting, with no reports of botrytis in the Upper Midwest." He said the highest quality comes at 4 tons per acre after a 150- to 160-day growing season with 2,200 to 2,600 degree-days. The vines have moderate growth with few laterals and drooping shoots, which makes them ideally suited for high cordon so that most of the fruit is "right out in the sunlight." He recommends spraying twice before bloom and twice after. In the Twin Cities and points south, the grapes have been harvested at 22° to 24° Brix, with an average TA of 8 grams per liter, while in cooler spots the Brix have been in the 21° to 22° range and the TA at 9 to 10 grams per liter. After harvest, it produces "a thick, jammy must," Plocher said, and "is the inverse of most cold-climate grapes with a high ratio of tartaric acid to malic acid, plus soft tannins that are extractable during fermentation." Dr. Matthew Clark, assistant professor of grape breeding and enol- ogy at the University of Minnesota, provided a similar rundown of Itasca, a cross between Frontenac Gris and MN 1234 made in 2002 and selected in 2009. "The growth habit is open and manageable," he said, "and the vines can be vigorous, but the kicker shoots on the trunk help de-vigorate the growth…and create many good pruning options." The early vines have seen modest infections of powdery mildew and black rot, but seem to be almost phylloxera-free, with no downy mildew observed. Itasca is quite hardy—having two strains of Vitis riparia in its lineage "is, I think, helping cold-hardiness," Clark said, and the variety produces, "healthy, high-quality fruit with some rosy berries." The grape clusters have been coming in at 95 to 145 grams and 24.7° to 28.2° Brix, with the pH at 3.04 to 3.31 and the TA at 9.5 to 10.8 grams per liter. The average harvest date has been Sept. 18. For his part, Parallel 44's Johnson said, "It's critical that (Itasca's) acid comes in under 10." As for Petite Pearl, for which his winery already has garnered numerous medals, "I just want it to be what it's going to be." —Bill Ward The white wine grape Itasca was created at the University of Minnesota.