Wet weather proving a challenge for vineyards

SHERMAN — Volunteers worked their way through the grape vines at White Silo Farm and Winery, cutting the fruit to be turned into wine.

It’s a scene that’s a week delayed — just one of the latest challenges this year’s difficult growing season has presented with the abundance of rain in July and August.

“We’ve had the worst weather imaginable for grape growing,” said Eric Gorman, managing partner at White Silo. “It’s challenging to grow grapes in Connecticut, period, with the short season and cold winters. This year we had a wet spring, summer and fall with lots of humidity.”

But even with the hard growing season, the actual wine won’t be affected.

Vineyards were generally able to harvest an average crop, though some saw a bit of a loss in a few varieties. The grapes just took a little more attention and care than usual.

This included extra hedging, leaf pulling and mildew sprays.

The season also stands out in contrast to the two excellent seasons in 2016 and 2017 when the weather was dry and sunny.

“Grapes love a good hot summer, and dry conditions lead to easily ripened grapes with little threat of mold and mildew damage that plagues fruit in general in Connecticut, but grapes as well,” said Jonathan Edwards, president of the Connecticut Vineyard and Winery Association.

This year also differed because there were more intense rainfalls, with two to three inches of rain each time, rather than the occasional storm.

“It’s pretty much been nonstop,” Gorman said.

The Danbury area saw three to five inches above normal for August and one to two inches above normal for July, according to the National Weather Service.

Heart of growing season

A lot of rain is not always bad, though. It depends on when it hits in the growing season.

In May or June when the grapes are flowering, an abundance of rain can hinder pollinating and cause less fruit to set, translating into a low amount.

Rain during the heart of the growing season isn’t really a concern. Growers have to keep an eye on the leaves to make sure they don’t mildew, which affects photosynthesis and prevents them from ripening, Edwards said.

“The great weather we had in June and early July led to wonderful fruit set and most wineries have average to above average crops on the vine at this point,” Edwards said. “The challenge has been the excessive rain. Western Connecticut has had a fair amount more rain than eastern Connecticut due to the weather pattern bringing all of the moisture up from the mid-Atlantic.”

Large amounts of rain during the harvest can dilute flavors because the plant takes in an excess of water. It can also lead to mold and rot in the grape clusters if too much water is put in the grape, causing the skins to split.

“The rain’s been challenging, to say the least,” said Mark Langford, business manager at DiGrazia Vineyards in Brookfield.

Vineyards have to address other aspects of the growing season with the weather out of their control. This includes changing when to pick and how often to spray fungicides.

Meeting state criteria

Gorman left his grapes on the line a little longer so they had some more time to ripen and allow the sugar content to return, while Langford took some of his varieties in a little early to prevent the risk of ruining the crop.

Langford said he lost some of his crop when Tropical Storm Florence hit the area.

DiGrazia’s vineyard is on a hill, which helped drain the field and prevent the grapes from sitting in water, Langford said.

“It wasn’t as bad as you’d think it was with the frequent rain,” he said, adding the deer and birds were hungrier than usual, though.

Langford’s organic grapes tended to do better than those grown the traditional way during the wet weather, but he said the research isn’t out yet on why this is. He also found the white grapes have thicker skins and fared better than red varieties.

Because the harvest sizes have been at about the same levels, growers aren’t really worried about meeting the state’s wine criteria, especially because they are generally well above the required local fruit amounts either with grapes or other fruit added.

At least 25 percent of the fruit used in wines made by licensed farm wineries in Connecticut must be grown in Connecticut, according to state statute.

That percentage increases to at least 51 percent to be designated a Connecticut Grown winery.

“This has been a most challenging growing season, but Connecticut growers have managed the challenges to date,” Edwards said.

H John Voorhees III / Hearst Connecticut Media Jeanne Shaw, of Danbury, cuts grapes from the vines of the White Silo Farm and Winery in Sherman. Volunteers harvested the grapes at the winery on Saturday.

Employee David Jellen loads grapes Saturday into a crusher and de-stemmer during the harvest at the White Silo Farm and Winery.