2020 fails us again for grapes

Well it was another disappointment for a harvest this year. 2019 we lost a lot of grapes to late heavy rains and again this year was another washout. Probably the worst one since 2010 when we barely had a summer. Part of it is on my end with a death in the family in August that took me away and a broken sprayer that had me missing critical sprays in June. But even those events didn’t do me in completely. It was the rain.

But what I am realizing is that this might be the new reality. This year was certainly warm enough to ripen pinot and chardonnay, but it was the rain that destroyed us. Right at a critical time for harvest we got 5″ of rain and heavy winds here in Woodinville over several day. A crop that was already reduced because of rain in June during flowering, got decimated.

Not every grape faired so badly. I have a row of 50 vines that has some experimental stuff. Zweigelt, Garanoir, St. Laurent, Ehrenfelser, Auxerrois, Regent, Dornfelder and a couple of others that are eating grapes. Most of these fared pretty good. Where the thin skins on the pinot got destroyed by the rain and wind, the thicker skins of say dornfelder and zweigelt barely got damaged.

I planted this vineyard 16 years ago as half experiment and half income stream to prove a point that we could grow quality pinot noir (and chardonnay) in the Puget Sound region. It has been proved many times be me and others, but I am also realizing the limits to our area, especially those of us in the convergence zone. When it works, we can make world class wines, but when it doesn’t we lose many if not all of our grapes.

After growing grapes in the Puget Sound region for 22 years, I have some observations:

1. We can make world class wine here. I got a 90 point review in Wine Enthusiast in 2011 that proved it to me. As did the multiple awards from many other wineries.
2. We have challenges here that most other north American regions don’t face. Basically we can get rain at the worst part of the growing season. During flowering and during harvest. A lot of Europeans don’t have this problem, they have others like hale that we never have.
3. The old thinking was that we’d pick grapes the first week of October or later if we could. But what I am finding is that we can get really heavy rains during the critical last two weeks of September so your grapes better be ripe around mid September.
4. Pinot (with caveats) and Chardonnay might not be our best choice for growing in the Puget Sound. We need grapes that ripen the same time or before Pinot Noir and also have thicker skins and a higher degree of resistance to mold and rot.
5. People have matured beyond the brand name grapes and you can make a damn fine wine without pinot or chard and still sell them

We have three areas to attack this problem:

1. Early grapes
2. Resistant grapes
3. Planting in better areas

Planting in better areas

By that I mean, in areas that seem to get less rain in June and September. In Woodinville, we have the convergence zone, which can really cause havoc during late September. I looked around at several other rain gauges in the Puget Sound region after this last bout of rain and we got almost double the rain here. Over 5″ of rain in a week. It might be too late for me to move my vineyard but if you are making a choice on location try and go to a place out of the convergence zone but still warm. Sequim, Whidbey Island and the San Juan Islands are much drier but a so much cooler because of the water. Puyallup and the Key Peninsula offer warmer areas with less rain

Early Grapes

I made a decision to plant Pinot because I wanted to prove something. I might not make the same decision again, except with Pinot Noir Precoce (Fruhburgunder). There are a handful of grapes that ripen earlier than pinot, Madeleine Angevine, Siegerrebe, Pinot Gris, Auxerrois, Rondo, Ortega. All should ripen before the heavy rains of mid September. I didn’t have Precoce available to me otherwise I would’ve planted it. If you are planning a commercial vineyard,  you should be heavy into this clone with maybe some 667, 115 on 3309 rootstock for really warm years.

Resistant Grapes

I think these are going to be our best bet against this crappy weather, especially for red grapes that are later. I have done really well with Regent but after 20 years I am realizing it does have some limitations. I only recommend it for backyard growers. It needs minimal spraying but needs close attention to nutrition. It can give you a large crop but wine is not top tier quality.

As the years have progressed I have become especially impressed with Garanoir, Dornfelder and Zweigelt. This last spate of rain showed that these grapes can take a beating much better than pinot noir. Garanoir because it seems to ripen just a bit earlier than pinot but also drops acid quickly. Sugars don’t get high but I’m fine with a 12% alcohol red. It also seems to laugh at botrytis too. Dornfelder has some thick skins and is very vigorous so it needs to be on rootstock, but my god the clusters are enormous. The wine is very good too. Zweigelt is also turning out to be thick skinned and while not ripening earlier than pinot, it also does not get mold nearly as bad as pinot in heavy rain. Plus it gives you 2 to 3 times as many grapes a pinot. There are other grapes that fall in here that I’ve not tried. Gamaret is a sibling to Garanoir. Same parents slightly different grape but for some reason we never got that grape in the ground here even though WSU did experimental plantings with it. There are also some new vines from British Columbia that are like Regent. Small amounts of native american grapes bred in to give Powdery Mildew and Botrytis resistance. I have some experimental plantings here and should have some numbers in a year or two.

One other issue that needs to be addressed is the use of rootstock. Most of the grapes mentioned could benefit from being grafted to a rootstock to aide in ripening and smaller growth but also they do fine without rootstock, you just need to plant them further apart.

To sum it up, I get a lot of questions about pinot noir in our region. Think carefully before you go gung ho and plant your whole vineyard with it. Backyard growers really shouldn’t grow it at all.