Midwest Wine Press: What’s HF1831 all about?

Irv Geary: HF1831 is a bill proposed by the MGGA to do two major things. First, it will start to regulate Direct to Consumer (DTC) wines being shipped into the state of Minnesota. Currently DTC wines coming into the state are not regarded as a sale and thus not tracked or taxed. This bill would require DTC wineries, both in and out of state, to license with the state, file shipping reports and pay sales tax.

Secondly, the sales tax collected would be directed to the Department of Agriculture for the formation of a Minnesota Grape and Wine Advisory Council. This council would be made up of wineries, growers and various members of the industry. They would give project recommendations to the commissioner of agriculture surrounding consumer awareness, marketing, industry education, create funds for extension and create grants for research and development. 

MWP: If the bill is approved, how will it help change the Minnesota wine industry?

IG: If passed we are hoping this bill would put our state on par with other states that have had successful wine councils such as MO and MI. We have seen the success elsewhere and are hoping to emulate their programs. We would like to see state wide consumer education around MN grape varietals and MN wines. Further, we are in need of industry development and education so are looking for extension help in viticulture and enology, as well as creating grants for grape and wine research and development. With better wines and more consumer awareness we believe it is possible to see the percentage of wine purchased in the state that is MN grow to 10%.  We know we can do better and this is the key to more opportunities. 

MWP: What is the timeline for the bill getting through committees and then to the House?

IG: The bill has been heard in the House Agriculture and Commerce committees. It has been referred on to the Omnibus Liquor bill so may go through the house in there which we feel very good about. It has not been heard in the Senate yet and needs more support there. If it clears the house it may still find its way into the senate but we are trying to help it along as much as possible.

The Purdue University Enology professor and the wine championship’s chief judge offered guidance to the judges.  He said it was important that this year’s results were relevant to the future of wine, the millennials, a generation known for their lack of wine snobbery and tendency to embrace sweet as well as dry wines.

This is what 2,000 bottles of wine looks like. INDY 2017’s competing bottles revealed!

It would be hard to find a competition that shines a spotlight on more wines relevant to millennials. INDY is also a showcase for great hybrid and vinifera wines from across the USA and the world. You’ll find classy Cabernets from Kentucky, delicious, often sweet, hybrid whites like Traminette and La Crescent from all over the Midwest, and unusual wines flavored with peanuts or lime. But there are also more conventional offerings like Italian Proseccos, Merlots from Washington State, California Chardonnays and even Sauvignon blancs from New Zealand.

French Lick’s Kim Doty and St. James Winery’s Andrew Meggit in action.

Midwest Wine Press was a lucky member of a judging table captained by the sagacious Kim Doty from Indiana’s French Lick Wine & Spirits, the genial Allen Dossey, owner and winemaker from Kentucky’s Purple Toad Winery and the fun Andrew Meggit, winemaker for Missouri’s St. James Winery.

As judging got underway, winemakers Allen and Andrew discussed cross filters. The St. James winemaker assured Allen that this form of filtering doesn’t strip flavor and is very good for fruit wines. There were more helpful winemaking hints to follow.

Meanwhile, on the first morning, the flights of wines included red vinifera

Christian Butzke alongside MWP’s judging table: Kim Doty from French Lick, Andrew Meggitt from St. James Winery, Allen Dossey from Purple Toad Winery and our brave trainee judge.

blends, berry wines (with a particularly pungent raspberry sample) and hybrid roses. The latter included a Chambourcin blush that was the lightest colored wine I’d ever seen and a white Cynthiana with a lovely aroma of honeysuckle. Between 9am and about midday we tasted seven flights, most with about ten wines.

I was holding steady but a little dazed. During the lunch break MWP encountered Christian in the corridor:

Christian: So what are you doing now? Writing for The New York Times or The Washington Post?

MWP: Unfortunately no, just the trusty MWP, some other freelance writing gigs and a bit of public radio.

Christian: Public Radio? I have an idea for a radio show! Like two guys talking about cars, but wine and you call in with donations. We could make a fortune! It would be a public radio-Breitbart News combination!

Christian Butzke, Purdue enologist and chief judge of INDY 2017.

Back at our wine judging table my colleagues were also in a joking mood. French Lick’s Kim told a story about a customer who came in and asked if there were any Nigerian wines. It turned out they were after wine made from Niagara grapes!

All the wines we tasted — including the Niagaras – were very enjoyable. Perhaps the best flight came on day two, the final day of judging: an exceptional flight of 8 Cabernet franc wines. Number 1727 had lovely dry cherry aromas. 1600 started with an intriguing charcoal/earth smell. 396 was Cabernet in style with robust plummy fruit qualities. Despite this stiff competition, we later found out that Kim, our table’s captain, actually made a Cabernet franc that won best of class at INDY this year. Congratulations!

We also thought we’d found the millennial sweet wine par excellence. During a sparkling wine taste off between a Valvin muscat and a Concord, the Concord’s bubble gum aromas and particularly moussey bubbles struck us as a millennial winner. But there were plenty of other wines that might please sweet drinkers including a sweet Chardonnay on our very first flight and a little later, a sweet Merlot.

Sometimes the flavors were just unusual. A flight from naturally flavored bottles offered a powerful lime candy wine and also a very peanutty peanut wine. There was a syrupy Tempranillo coffee wine that had some members of our table moaning for more.

The winemaking tips continued. After a discussion about a winemaker who made bad wine but insisted, despite a lack of customers and diplomatic words from colleagues, that his wine was good, Allan offered some good advice for any winemaker starting out: ‘You’ve got to be better, cheaper or different to other wines. But if you’re different, you have to have a big enough following.” It wasn’t just a rant. When the judging was over, Allan offered his own Cabernet aged in old bourbon barrels for tastes. I couldn’t actually detect much impact from the bourbon but for its gorgeous fruit and strong varietal character Allan’s red was the best Cabernet I’d tasted over the last couple of days. A little later we learned that Allan won the INDY Winemaker of the Year award. It was clearly well deserved!

The full list of 2017 winners and results can be found on the Indy International Wine Competition website.

Thanks very much to Purdue’s Jill Blume, enology specialist and Christian Butzke, enology professor, for organizing such a well-run and fun wine competition — and for inviting and sponsoring MWP to attend.

Another colorful flight.

Intro — Part i

Got a hint of burnt rubber smell in that St. Pepin that’s sitting idly in tank? No problem, a judicious dose of Copper Sulfate will correct that. Following a quick and easy tank addition, according to protocol, you filter your wine after treatment and Wham-Bam, Ding-a-Ling-a, Ding-Dam – problem fixed“at least for the time being.

You bottle, and after several months, proudly unveil your beloved creation to a room full of your friends, only to realize that the nefarious burnt rubber smell is back. An odor, your neighbor Ned was quick to point out reminds him of being at a racecar track. Who invited that big mouth in the first place?

What the H*%# happened? Well, unbeknownst to you a ticking time bomb went off and it’s in large part because you added Copper to your wine!

How’s that possible? Copper is the tried-and-true fix for treating Reductive aromas, or more precisely put, Sulfur-like Off odor (SLOs) in wine.

And you’re right, traditionally, copper has been used to correct these types of wine faults (open any Enology or Winemaking text book). Heck, I’ve even suggested this correction in previous protocols and articles.

But that was then and this is now. So, buckle up and sit tight – what we’re about to cover in the this article is research that has taken place in the past 5 years that refutes just about everything we think we know about SLO treatment.

Current use of copper in Wine

For those, looking for the basics on SLOs, please read my 2014 MWP article (Back to Basics: Preventing Rotten Eggs). This article assumes you are familiar with the basic nomenclature of different SLOs.

SLO formation during fermentation is pretty well characterized. However, what is poorly understood is post-fermentation SLO formation either during tank storage or in bottle (herein referred to as latent H₂S formation). I personally lament latent H₂S formation especially as it relates to wine sitting idly in tank (typically a white or rosé) because the exact cause of formation is rather difficult to identify.

Regardless of when SLO formation occurs (assuming it’s not already in bottle), the winemaker will often carry out bench trials to better pinpoint what concentration of Copper is needed to correct the SLO problem at hand — assuming SLO is H₂S or a MeSH (Pic. 1).

                                                                         Pic. 1  Adding 1% Copper stock to a Glass of Wine.

Unequivocally, what is not being refuted here is the notion that Copper will complex with the stinky sulfide molecule and form Copper Sulfide (CuS). With little doubt, this chemical reaction occurs rapidly in wine².

Traditionally, CuS has been said to be insoluble in wine, leading to formation of a black precipitate that over time settles to the bottom of the tank. To ensure CuS does not release H₂S over time, after CuS settling, a simple racking and/or filtration has been the standard protocol. One major problem with the current protocol, does anyone actually ever see this precipitate?! Personally, I’ve never seen it before and I’d be willing to bet you haven’t either.

 Why is that? A Look at Modern Research

In short, it appears that there are two leading theories as to why the CuS precipitate is never observed: 1) CuS forms nanoparticles ranging in size from 1-1000 nm (for comparison a bacteria cell is roughly 1000 nm) and therefore is not visible to naked eye¹, and/or 2) CuS doesn’t precipitate and binds with other wine components (hold your horses on this one).^2,3

First things first. In the former experiment¹, the authors acknowledged that a precipitate was never visually observed. However, one of the aims of the study was to access the efficacy in removing CuS in wine after Copper treatment. Here the authors assessed the effects of racking, settling (1 vs. 5 days) and sterile filtration (at 0.45 or 0.2 μm). Surprisingly for commercial wines after settling or filtering treatments, negligible amounts of Copper was removed.¹ Highlighting the fact that despite your best efforts to remove CuS from wine, it is likely still there after treatment!

As this result significantly differed from that of prior model wine experiments (a model wine is a ‘bare bones” wine comprised of a diluted ethanol solution set at a specific pH), where sterile filtration was indeed able to decrease residual copper levels, the authors theorized that something in commercial wines must be binding up CuS. In a subsequent experiment, that something turned out to be tartaric acid. This piece of evidence suggests for us in cool and cold climate country, where our wines contain elevated organic acid levels (both malic and tartaric acid alike) the wines maybe really good at binding up CuS – making it really hard to remove CuS from wines using conventional methods.

Ah Binders of CuS, this brings us to the latter experiment. Not only can CuS be bound up in wine but it now appears evident that the reductive notes themselves, specifically H₂S and MeSH, can also bind (or be trapped) with other wine components — with or without Copper Treatment!² This new binding mechanism, has lead researchers to segregate and characterize SLOs (for H₂S or MeSH) either on bound or free form basis. For example, if H₂S is in its free form, it is odor active and you can detect its presence with your nose (assuming it’s concentration is greater than the odor detection threshold). And when H₂S is in bound form, it is not odor active. As previously discussed, an example of bound H₂S is CuS interacting with tartaric acid. And similar to SO₂ wine chemistry, Free H₂S + Bound H₂S = Total H₂S (the same equation works for MeSH).

What is really interesting is that on average, most H₂S (80 — 95% of total) in white, rosé, or red wine is in the bound form!^2,3 Meaning that most of the H₂S in wine isn’t even detectable by the human nose, even though a significant portion might be present! What binds with H₂S (and MeSH) in wine and the mode of action, is an area of active research by multiple teams.

As previously mentioned, tartaric acid has already been implicated as one source of bound H₂S (trapping CuS) and currently other forms are being explored (see Sulfur Residues and Post-Bottling Formation of Hydrogen Sulfide for more info). What is clear is that this mechanism is multifaceted, with many moving parts, and as of right now poorly characterized.

If the newfound understanding that there is a difference between Free vs. Bound SLOs wasn’t enough, a single research group is also strongly arguing that H₂S and MeSH do not precipitate with metals such as Copper in wine at all!² This notion, runs counter to what has been preached by Wine experts (myself included) and texts for decades.

According to the researchers data set, additions of Copper as high as 2 mg/L (ppm) have not yielded a visual precipitate and upon further analysis, the CuS complex remained in solution (wine). While this notion is still up for academic debate, pairing this data point with winemakers’ observation of never seeing a black precipitate strongly suggests that CuS may not precipitate at all. Lastly, according to this same research group, these H₂S metal-complexes (e.g. CuS) are completely soluble, stable, and more importantly reversible…

Part ii — Triggers of Bound H₂S Release — A ticking time Bomb

Yes, you read that correctly, bound H₂S (or MeSH) formation is reversible! Meaning that a Copper treated wine that forces H₂S into a bound state (recall CuS association with tartaric acid), can also release sulfide (at a later time) to reform odor active Free H₂S. In this sense, CuS acts as a type of chameleon, tricking you to believe that the issue at hand has been corrected, when in reality it is sitting there in wine, hidden and bound to other wine constituents in its non-odor active form, idly waiting for the right moment and time to resurface!

This new latent H₂S release mechanism begs the questions as to how this occurs and more practically when does this release occur, herein called a trigger?

The most well studied triggers of latent H₂S release comes from bottled wine studies.^4,5 After addition of Copper to a bottled wine, anoxia (or a lack of Oxygen) in bottle is the best characterized trigger to latent H₂S release.⁴ Taking this research a step further, under similar anoxic bottle conditions, a follow-up research group discovered that wines with last minute copper and SO₂ additions pre-bottling were more susceptible to have latent H₂S issues in bottle than wines treated solely with Copper.⁵

Coming full circle on our St. Pepin story, this mechanism is the exact mechanism in which the dreaded latent H₂S reappeared in your bottle. Because you added Copper pre-bottling and were extremely careful to keep the Dissovled Oxygen (DO) in your wine low (< 0.5 ppm), sparged your bottles with inert gas before filling, purged the bottle headspace with inert gas before closing, and chose a screw cap closure you may have unknowingly accelerated the chemical means to force latent H₂S release in bottle.

How and why this happening is not yet fully understood. And there are likely to more triggers / mechanisms to be discovered.

For now, it is interesting to note that anoxic conditions seem to force latent H₂S release, especially when considering that the hot topic du jour in wine publications relates to Total Package Oxygen (TPO) in bottle. TPO is the cumulative amount of oxygen exposed to wine in bottle over time, typically measured by taking into consideration dissolved oxygen in wine plus headspace oxygen, and sometimes includes the OTR of the bottle closure overtime. Having high TPO forces premature loss of SO₂ and thus premature oxidation mechanisms in to occur in bottle. Therefore, in order to increase the shelf life of a wine, the current recommendation is to minimize TPO as much as possible during bottling. But here, if a wine has been previously exposed to Copper treatment, this deliberately low TPO may in fact be the trigger to latent H₂S formation in bottle!

As with most winemaking practices, walking the tight rope of this balancing act is a must — having too much oxygen can predispose your wine to premature oxidation and having too little oxygen may trigger H₂S release (if copper has been previously used). Talk about the art of intelligent compromise.   On this note, the silver lining as to why more wines treated with Copper haven’t released H₂S is because of the OTR of the bottle closure used. Preliminary reports have shown, that higher oxygen permeability in a closure is likely beneficial in minimizing Free Forms of H₂S emerging from bound forms.² Meaning that a higher rate of oxygen diffusion into the wine, either from the closure and/or through the closure, is beneficial to prevent a latent H₂S release.

Although not firmly cemented in research, this finding might lend credence as to why screw cap closures have been linked to higher rates of reductive wine faults.⁶ Before the advent of the more oxygen permeable Saranex liners, screw caps have (and are) notoriously low in OTRs.⁶ And this property could inadvertently trigger latent H₂S release in bottle — especially if the wine had previously been treated with copper. On this premise, for a reductive wine that has been previously treated with Copper, it may be in your best interest to bottle wine with a closure that allows a higher OTR.

So where does this leave us?

Regardless if copper has been added or not, we now understand that the bulk of H₂S produced may not be aromatically detectable (in bound form), if we do treat an H₂S flaw with Copper, we may never be able to remove CuS; thus leaving our wines open to latent H₂S release — especially under anoxic bottle conditions.

So what can we do about this problem?

First and foremost, in terms of treating post-fermentation H₂S or MeSH, Copper (hopefully for obvious reasons) is probably not the best choice.   For now, two alternatives remain viable alternatives: Reduless and Kupzit. Reduless is a proprietary inactivated yeast product from Lallemand that contains biologically bound Copper. Meaning, when used according to protocol, the maximum residual copper left in wine is 0.02 ppm. Similarly, Kupzit, is propriety product from Erbslöh and contains 2% Copper Citrate encapsulated in Bentonite. Both products work by using embedded Copper to pull H₂S or MeSH out of solution and trap Sulfide within the solid phase. After treatment, a simple racking and/or filtration after settling is all that is needed to remove the SLO from wine.

More recently, a winemaker-friendly analytical test has been developed by Dr. Gavin Sacks lab group at Cornell University. ³ This test can help quantify both Free H₂S and bound H₂S through the use of a Gas Detection Tube (GDT). Note, a similar test was developed by this same group to quantify elemental Sulfur residues on grapes that can also lead to H₂S formation (see video here). This test consists of using a GDT, originally developed for the mining industry more than 75 years ago, and a chemical solution (a brine, or other reducing agents) to force the release of bound H₂S.

Despite having an inexpensive and accurate test to quantify for possible formation of latent H₂S, the challenge here seems to be what to make of the quantified number. Think about it, just because the test can force most of the bound H₂S into a detectable free form doesn’t necessarily mean this is what is going to happen in bottle. Recall, there are multiple triggers that favor this release in wine, so there is no guarantee that what has been quantified predisposes the wine to future latent H₂S release in bottle (or in tank). Therefore, from a sensory standpoint, any link to current or future detectable amounts of H₂S hasn’t been made yet. So unless you’re doing your own R&D, for now, this test may serve more as of academic exercise than a true risk assessment.

In conclusion, if you can’t tell by now, it appears that Enology chapters dealing with Reductive Aromas will be re-written after this research has concluded. There’s much more to discuss with ongoing research efforts but that will have to be for another day. For now, the best strategy is to avoid SLO formation altogether, but that is not always feasible given the number of unknowns for post-fermentation SLO formation. So if you do need to treat, look to the alternatives mentioned above. And if a wine does need treatment, choosing a closure with higher OTRs may be a wise choice in this scenario.

Because if you don’t, well, then I’m sure your beloved neighbor Ned will be there to remind you of your mess-up once again and nobody wants that.

Sources

1. Clark et al., 2015. AJGWR 21: 30-39
2. Ferreira and Franco-Luesma et al., 2016. IJEV 2/1: 1-11.
3. Chen et al., 2017. AJEV 68: 91-98
4. Ugliano et al., 2011. JAFC 59: 2564-2572.
5. Bekker et al., 2016. Molecules 21, 1214
6. AWRI, 2003. Technical Review no. 142.

Cin Cin,

Piero Spada

University of Missouri Enology Professor Misha Kwasniewskia speaking at last year’s Show Me conference.

The Show Me State has a Show Me wine conference for the second year in a row. The University of Missouri’s Grape and Wine Institute (GWI) is staging its Show Me Grape and Wine Conference and Symposium from March 8th to 10th at the Hampton Inn & Suites in Colombia.

The notable absence of Vineyard & Winery Management’s Midwest wine conference – an event that has taken place in various forms since 2010 – means the GWI conference and symposium is the only major wine conference in Missouri this year and probably the best way to soak up the latest advances in viticultural and winemaking techniques relevant to the Show Me state.

Dean Volenberg, director of the MU Grape and Wine Institute and assistant extension professor of Viticulture and Winery Operations, sat down at his computer to answer a few questions from MWP about the upcoming event.

Midwest Wine Press: What are you focusing on at the conference?

Dean Volenberg: The Show Me Grape and Wine Conference is focusing educational outreach on a broad array of viticulture and enology topics that are important to continental climates.

For grape growers the continental climate provides constant challenges especially in the arena of disease management. There are the common and consistent disease threats, exposing grape growers to the biology and ecology of these pathogens along with identifying these pathogens is key to disease management. One of the consistent challenges grape growers face are summer rots, especially Sour rot in the cultivar Vignoles.

This year we are pleased to have Megan Hall from Cornell University who will provide growers with an update on her sour rot research.

Dean Volenberg, the University of Missouri Grape and Wine Institute’s Program Director.

Focusing further on pathogens, grape growers will learn about some of the new pathogens and viruses that are appearing. And what efforts are being taken by grapevine suppliers to assure clean planting stock.

MWP: What do you see as the MO wine industry’s strengths?

DV: The real strength of the Mo grape and wine industry is collaboration and engagement. A number of entities collaborate to move the industries forward.

The Missouri Wine and Grape Board (MWGB) funds needed research, education and extension outreach as well as well as marketing Missouri wines. That is just the beginning. The grape growers, winemakers, Grape and Wine Institute, and the Marketing all collaborate as a team to drive the industry forward. This collaboration results in engagement, and helps solve issues as they arise in the grape and wine industries.

MWP: What would you like to improve?

DV: Eastern grape growing and winemaking is still expanding. With this expansion, new grape growers or winemakers are entering the profession. Many of these grape growers may not be new to agriculture, but are unfamiliar with grape production.

Similarly, many winemakers may not be new to making wine, but have limited experiences in commercial wine production.

To continually elevate both grape and wine quality a beginner grape growers school and winemaking school would help educate individuals considering entering the profession. I envision these schools being 4-to 5-days and being taught by viticulture and enology academics or industry professionals on a regional basis.

Continuing professional development is very important in the grape and wine industry. There is always something new to learn. That may involve keeping aware of a new pest found in the state and the associated plant symptomology.

On the winemaking side, new yeast strains, new sterilization techniques, or changes in fermentation technology. Attending conferences and being involved with other grape growers, winemakers, and the Grape and Wine Institute provides everyone a great resource network to succeed.

MWP: To boost the quality wines made from local grapes versus the imports and to make things clearer for wine consumers, a few states have, or are considering, wine quality programs that label wines made on the winery premises from local grapes that meet a certain quality standard with a distinctive quality mark on the label. Is that something MO should consider?

DV: I don’t feel this is the time to discuss Quality Verification Assurance program. Yes I have an opinion about it but I think it best that these discussions continue without my opinion.

A view down the newly installed T-Posts

At the beginning of today I wasn’t entirely confident it would turn out so well. As a complete novice when it comes to installing vineyard trellis systems (I can’t really count my backyard wire–free mini-vineyard of Norton vines can I?) I had no idea if what was in my head would actually transfer effectively to the paddock. I’d read quite a lot, talked to quite a few people and mapped out a basic plan on the computer, including calculating spaces between the line posts and rows. But that was only theory — what about the practice?

At this first stage of putting in the trellis (just line posts at this stage and we will add end-posts and wires after planting vines in April next year) the worries were numerous and included:

1. Earth Issues: Maybe the ground is too soft for T-Posts and they will fall over as we punch them in with the post-puncher, even disappear completely into the ground?
2. Straight Line Doubts: Is it really possible to ensure line posts are in a straight line by running a string from the first post to the end of the proposed row? That sounds too simple.
3. Uneven Ground: Maybe the field where we are putting the vineyard is much more uneven and undulating that I remember it. So the trellis will look awful whatever we do?
4. T-Post Uncertainties: Was it really a good idea to choose T-Posts at all? Maybe they will look really ugly and be impossible to line up properly for some unknown reason?
5. Midlife Crisis: Maybe I should stick to looking after our kids and part-time writing. Who are you kidding about this vineyard stuff?

After a three-hour session this morning, punching in the first six rows of line posts with Belvoir boss Jesse Leimkuehler, the skies have lifted and issues 1 to 4 have been answered very positively. It’s fair to say number 5 is still a lingering doubt but I’ve suppressed it with today’s good news.

1. Earth Issues Answer: As we punched in the 8 foot T-Posts we found our clay dominated soils with varying amounts of pretty loose, organic topsoil (the paddock had two horses in it until recently) were very soft in some spots and almost rock hard in others. It didn’t seem to matter, the posts went in with varying degrees of grunting but always ended up sufficiently straight and solid.
2. Straight Line Answers: There are various ways to make sure your vineyard rows are straight and all of them had me running scared. I’d read about high-tech vineyards using GPS positioning on a laptop to ensure their vineyard rows were straight (I only got a smartphone a few months ago so no thanks). There’s also the method where you get in your tractor and trust it to drive in a straight line and just plonk in the posts as you go (I’m too effete to drive a tractor with any skill). I’d also read you could use a rope or string and just attach it to a line post or some other anchor where you want your row to start and run it all the way to the end of the row. This method sounded pleasingly old school and straightforward — but do they make balls of string that long? I checked the label on the brown ball of garden twine I’d purchased a couple of years back and saw that it claimed to contain 208 feet of twine. Our rows are about 225 feet long and luckily during a senior moment I’d bought another ball of the same brown twine so we had plenty of string. The paddock where we are putting the vineyard is fenced so it was easy to tie the string to the lowest plank on the fence and attach it on the same lowest level plank at the opposite side of the field. Despite being thin, brown garden twine the string was strong enough to do this without breaking and we got nice straight rows as a result. Before banging in a T-Post we’d have our string as one alignment guide, then we’d use a yardstick to recheck that our row width was still 12 feet and our eyeballs to line up the post with preceding posts – then bang it in!
3. Uneven Ground Answers: Despite memories of seeing the field being ploughed earlier in the year and looking very uneven, six months of mowing the rye grass cover crop we planted in April have served us well. The field is not a bowling green but it’s relatively flat and even. At places where the ground dips a bit we’d leave the T-posts a few inches higher to compensate a little.
4. T-Post Uncertainties Answered: Wood might look prettier, but standing 6 feet high, slim and elegant in their green paint with white tips, the T-Posts looked pretty good. Galen Haddock, owner and winemaker at Ladoga Ridge Winery in Smithville, Missouri, also wisely reminded us that you only really see the nice wooden line posts in winter when there are no leaves on the vines.

Other Line Post Considerations:

Why We Chose T-Posts For Line Posts and Not Wood or Steel Posts? At the last-minute we switched from wood to steel T-Posts thanks to advice from Galen from Ladoga Ridge. He made it clear that we were taking on a lot of work putting in wooden posts — auguring individual holes for 90 line posts and then back-filling them was going to take a long time. With T-Posts you just bang them in with a hefty hand-held punching device. He was right, we didn’t have the time to install wooden line posts. There’s also the added benefit that rust protected steel T-Posts are going to last longer than treated wood. We have straight steel posts in an old vineyard on the property and while they are cheaper than T-Posts, they clearly aren’t as good at staying straight and strong.

How Much Space Between Vines, Line Posts and the Rows? I’ve read in a few places that 24 feet is regarded

Belvoir Winery’s Jesse Leimkuehler takes a break after T-Post punching

as the maximum space you can have between line posts so we opted for that. Our rows are quite short at about 160 feet so we wouldn’t be putting the sort of stress on the posts that longer rows would. However, I became worried that we would be opening ourselves to greater chances of the wind pushing over our trellis. A chat with Dean Volenberg, viticulture expert at the University of Missouri, Columbia allayed any fears. Dean made it clear that whatever the size of the gap between line posts you can never guarantee that the wind won’t blow over your trellis. He advised that a 24 feet gap should be fine but if we ended up having to put in more posts then we could still do that and with T-Posts it would be simple. So we stuck with a 24 foot spacing and we plan to plant Norton vines 8 feet apart (a standard width recommended by most experts for vigorous hybrid vines) and we’ve spaced the alley between the rows at 12 feet wide. A width between the rows of 10 feet seems to be more standard in the Midwest but we have plenty of space so we thought we might as well do 12 to give the vines more space and ventilation, possibly helping reduce disease (sure Danny).

Why not install enough T-Posts to have a vine growing at each one? This would entail having a T-Post every 8 feet. I’ve read that vineyards that use T-Posts often install enough to plant a vine at each one, essentially using them as line posts and vine stakes. For us, that would have entailed buying three times as many T-Posts which seemed quite expensive (we got our 8 foot T-Posts for $6 each at Tractor Supply Company). Even though you would save on having to buy bamboo stakes to support the growing vines, you would still spend more (bamboo stakes cost about $1 each). Another reason we didn’t go with this method is experience in our first vineyard where vines were planted at each metal line post. Now that some line posts need replacing, they are very difficult to extricate from the vines. I was also worried that planting the vines right next to the line posts would shade the baby vines. Additionally, aesthetically speaking, well-spaced T-Posts look quite nice but I didn’t think a forest of T-Posts would look as good.

So we’ve gone ahead with 8 foot T-Posts! We still have six rows of these things to put in. Hopefully our next line-post punching session will go as smoothly.

Postscript: We’ve just finished putting in the rest of the T-Posts. Many thanks to Bobby Higgins for doing most of the work. Thanks also to Jesse for suggesting I write this article (!) There are a couple of posts we will have to pull out and put back in because they are out of alignment, but the other 82 posts look good – so far!

As a winery struggling to obtain wine placements for our wines, I have searched for a plausible answer to this lack of synergy within the local food movement.

Initially, I thought it might be a distribution issue. Most Minnesota Farm wineries self-distribute their wines so restaurants need to contact the winery directly for purchases. This is certainly more cumbersome than completing an order with the representative from your liquor distributor.

When I’ve asked restaurant beverage managers why they don’t carry local wines, most admit they didn’t know that Minnesota wines existed, which suggests they rely heavily on their beverage distributors for wine suggestions. But I struggle with an image of the chef who scours Farmer’s Markets and coops for locally sourced produce, yet fills his wine list with bottles from France and Italy. It just doesn’t resonate. Like all local products, sourcing local wines takes more effort than ordering non-domestic wines from a distributor.

Some have suggested the reason for few, if any local wines is customers expect variety — they want a global restaurant experience, so why limit the wine choices? I find this argument contrary to the definition of local, where production, processing, distribution and consumption are integrated on a small scale, creating sustainable local economies and a strong connection between farm and table. I find it hard to imagine Locavore advocates praising the practice of sourcing wines shipped across the globe in climate controlled containers, when you could purchase them from your neighbors.

Further, if consumer’s desire for globally sourced beverages is the defense for the lack of local wine placements, then beer must be immune to this phenomenon.

Locavore restaurants are loaded with great local beer choices. There seems little concern about a lack of far-flung beer sourcing from restaurateurs. Indeed, here in Minnesota, most locavore restaurants carry 75%-100% local beers on their menus, and consumers are reaping the benefits.

I attended a beer tasting recently that was conducted by a local liquor store, of nine beers presented, seven were from Minnesota, one was from Wisconsin and one from Utah. I was delighted to experience these local offerings. But when I asked if they used Minnesota wines when they conduct their wine tastings, they admitted they hadn’t, focusing instead on presenting tastes from around the world. I prefer their beer approach that introduced me to great local brewers I’d probably never tried otherwise and I’d love to see liquor stores use this same approach with wine.

The French wine regions of Burgundy and Bordeaux have long been staunch supporters of locally grown — especially their wines. As Matt Kramer, of Wine Spectator so cleverly put it, ‘If you had a fatal disease in Burgundy that only a bottle of Bordeaux could cure, you’d soon be dead.” This local advocacy has played a huge role in the global recognition of their wines, which have a significant impact on the French economy.

A prominent Minnesota food and wine editor once wrote, ‘I like everything local except wine. When they’ve been making Minnesota wine as long as the French, then they deserve a place in our restaurants.” In addition to dissing all new world wines, this statement clearly shows we are still building an identity for Minnesota wine.

We haven’t been around as long as, well, any other wine region, so we have some vetting to do.  Minnesota wineries haven’t been making wine nearly as long as our neighbors have been raising beef, so our lack of tenure could explain a lack of confidence from sommeliers.  Ah, but then there’s that beer thing again. The craft beer movement is far younger than the domestic wine industry yet local craft beer experiences far greater acceptance from local restaurants, and a lack of wine quality doesn’t explain why Napa Cabs and Oregon Pinots are missing from their local menus.  And in terms of quality, Minnesota wines have been racking up international medals at an impressive rate, so I don’t believe the lack of local wines on menus is due to local wine quality.

Lack of familiarity with Minnesota grape varieties, however, is a real challenge for Minnesota restaurants. Cabernet, Merlot and Chardonnay grapes are widely recognized by even the most novice wine drinker, so wines made from those varieties simply sell better.

Wines made from unfamiliar grapes, whether a warm climate grape like Mourvedre or a cold climate grape like Marquette, tend to languish in restaurant cellars. When these wines are offered by the glass, where substantial waste is inherent, the financial risk for the restaurant increases. The same customer who readily orders a glass of the latest craft brew craze, hesitates to venture beyond the familiar with their choice of wine. The wine world, long steeped in a bath of ritual, etiquette and pretentiousness, has created this customer who at best is uninterested and at worst afraid, to experiment with wine. This unfortunate legacy is a continual barrier to restaurant acceptance of Minnesota wines.

The really good news about Minnesota wines and Minnesota restaurants is that Minnesota wines are particularly food friendly. High acid wines really go with almost any food, and wines from cool climates are relatively high in acid — we are at the same latitude as Bordeaux!

Minnesota wineries continue to battle the dual challenges of awareness of Minnesota wines, and unfamiliarity of Minnesota grapes, to bring beautifully handcrafted, locally made, food-friendly wines to restaurants throughout Minnesota. So next time you dine out, look for us!

 ‘Minnesota’s First Single Serve Wines”

Unfamiliar grape varieties, such as those grown in Minnesota, can lead to more waste for restaurants offering them by the glass. Carlos Creek Winery is addressing this challenge by offering a number of their wines in single serve bottles. ‘We are the first Minnesota winery with the capability of producing single serve bottles. We can bottle still and sparkling wines in single-serve plastic or glass. This versatility has really helped increase our restaurant placements. One of our goals with producing single-serves was to get our wines in one of the Major League stadiums in the Twin Cities, and beginning this October, Carlos Creek single serve wines will be the exclusive single-serve wines available at the XCEL Energy Center — home of the Minnesota Wild!

‘Minnesota Wines are Minnesota Grown”

Minnesota Wineries are required by statute to source a majority of their fruit from Minnesota growers. This is not true for Minnesota brewers or distillers and is uncommon in many other states. Minnesota wines are truly value-add to Minnesota agriculture and have resulted in the establishment of thousands of acres of vineyards throughout the state.

Tamara Bredeson is the Co-Owner and President of Carlos Creek Winery in Alexandria, MN. She is also on the Executive Board for the Minnesota Farm Winery Association

“As a former dance educator, community theater director and bank marketing director, my expertise, experience and passion are for all things creative. Owning and marketing a winery has been a wonderfully creative and fulfilling experience and far more fun than marketing money! My husband and I purchased Carlos Creek Winery in 2008 and have grown production from 3000 cases to 15,000, quadrupled revenue and increased profits over 500%. We are committed to the concept of a for-profit winery! Located on 160 acres in the Alexandria Lakes Area Viticulture Area, we produce still and sparkling wines and have earned over 250 medals at international competitions. Our best-selling and most-awarded wines are our Minnesota Nice Series, which include ‘Hot Dish Red” Wobegon White” and ‘You Betcha Blushs” and are served in 187ml plastic bottles at the Excel Energy Center — Home of the Minnesota Wild!”

Will Kimberley (photo courtesy Calico Skies)

A decade after Marquette’s release by the University of Minnesota, Midwest Wine Press is checking in on its progress with help from Calico Skies winemaker, Will Kimberley. 

Marquette is one of the only grape varieties capable of making quality dry red wine in the colder parts of our region. The variety was developed by the University of Minnesota’s well respected cold hardy grape breeding program, released in 2006 and is the university’s best-selling grape. Marquette claims Frontenac as a cousin, Pinot Noir as a granddaddy and was developed from a cross of MN 1094 – a complex hybrid including Vitis riparia and Vitis vinifera – with the French hybrid Ravat 262. The grape has high sugar, moderate acidity and good tannin levels.

A couple of years ago, at the Minnesota Grape Growers Association’s Cold Climate Conference, there were some very promising medium bodied, lighter red colored Marquettes that were perhaps a little heavy on the oak. At the recent Indy International Wine Competition, hosted by the University of Purdue in West Lafayette, IN, the Marquettes had a deeper red color, a fuller mouthfeel, better balance and more adept use of oak. Winemakers are clearly sharpening their Marquette skills.

Will Kimberley is winemaker at one of the most northerly vineyards in the state of Iowa. Calico Skies Vineyard and Winery is located in Inwood, a handful of miles from both Minnesota and South Dakota. The Kimberleys chose their site carefully.

The winery is on top of a river bluff on land that was pasture for decades. Will says that after about 12 inches of fertile topsoil the earth becomes gravelly and then sandy (a plus in an area where most land is generally too fertile for grapes and used for corn and beans) and the water table is low.

‘Our site is on a gentle south facing slope. We don’t have any trees around us at all, and then right off the edge of our vineyard it drops down into a valley. So we’re kind of the high slopes before the valley and that does help us to not get those frost events as much.”

Like many varieties grown across the Midwest, not a lot is yet known about Marquette’s specific soil preferences. But Will says their 2 acres are flourishing and the first acre, planted in 2010, managed to survive the brutal 2012 drought without any signs of stress.

Together with his business partner and wife, Ashlee, they opened Calico Skies in 2011 after planting their first acres of vines, including 1 of Marquette, in 2010 (they planted a second acre this year)

Netting Marquette vines at Calico Skies Winery, late July, 2016 (photo courtesy of winery)

Eager to get the winemaking operation going, they made 70 gallons of Marquette wine in 2010 using grapes from local growers. It sold out quickly – and not just because there wasn’t very much of it!

‘It was popular right away,” says Will. ‘It’s been our dry red that we’ve had to increase the price every year because we’re not able to keep up with demand.”

However, making a crowd pleasing dry red out of Marquette has not been without challenges. During the last six years Will says they’ve learned a lot. For example, to get their preferred dark red color, rather than the light red of their earliest bottlings, has largely been solved by using different Scott Lab products.

‘Color makes a big difference in people’s perception of the mouthfeel and then the complexity of the wine,” says Will.

They’re also holding back on the oak, which helps craft wines in tune with their customers’ preferences for more fruit flavors. ‘So really paying attention to when we’re reaching that balance and then getting it out of the wood when we get there and also by using a heavier percentage of used oak,” says Will. ‘Then have the time in the barrel give it a little more of that body and tannin that we need for the mouthfeel.”

Midwest Wine Press: How did you set up your vineyard and trellis system for Marquette?

William Kimberley: We did 10 foot row spacing and 8 foot vine spacing. Our trellis system is a high bilateral cordon so we’ve got two trunks starting from below the soil coming up and getting up to a top wire. Our top wire is at 5 foot 2 because my wife is 5 foot tall! For Marquette, 5 foot works great. We chose 10 feet as the row spacing because it is pretty standard and with the equipment we had at the time we could get our tractor through it.

MWP: How have your vineyard practices changed over the last six years for Marquette?

WK: Thanks to the weather, grape growing in the Midwest can be really crazy. We were trying a few different things during the last few years but with weather events like the hail in 2014 and 2015 our experiments got thrown through a loop. This year is finally a good year when we can actually try something. What we are really trying to do is stay on top of combing to have a very defined fruiting zone. One of the most important things for us is to be out in the vineyard all season, combing and helping create a good structure for the plant so that the fruiting zone is all very even. Then we do a little bit of leaf pulling and try to give that fruiting zone a good amount of airflow and sun to really mature the grapes evenly. It’s really been about making sure the basics are solid and then from there we’ll have the opportunity to develop things how we want to.

Morning time, September 2015, in Calico Skies’ Marquette vineyard (photo courtesy winery)

MWP: How does Marquette’s growth compare to your other varieties?

WK: It’s just a little more vigorous than our Frontenac so it demands constant attention like combing, a little bit of leaf pulling and shoot thinning, especially early in the season. It sustains a good crop load — although not in our hail years when we’ve had a very low crop — but in the good years we’re easily able to get 4 tons an acre which we consider a full yield.

MWP: How do you help the vine survive the extreme cold?

WK: It does break bud early so frost is something we’re always worried about early in the season. We do what we can as far as the timing of our pruning and we long prune everything, so instead of cutting that branch that we’re going to leave to two or three buds, we pretty much leave the whole branch until the latest date we can to try and slow down those first few buds from coming out of dormancy. That’s worked pretty well. We also use a high potassium anti-frost spray that we use pretty freely with the Marquette to try and get another few degrees of frost protection.

MWP: What sort of spray program do you follow?

WK: Marquette is pretty good when it comes to disease pressure. We stay on a pretty strict spraying schedule, mostly preventative fungicides which we spray about every 12 days or so based on the Iowa State Extension template. We definitely get the sort of humidity that makes it so that we can’t be organic in our area, in my opinion. Apart from spraying we also manage the vines to ensure the grape clusters get adequate air flow through the fruiting zone to lessen the chance of disease. But that’s one variety that we haven’t had many issues with at harvest time, like the fruit having rot. We do have a little phylloxera coming in so we’ve started spraying for that but as long as you get the timing right on that it’s not a big deal at all.

MWP: What about keeping the soil in good shape?

WK: We don’t fertilize heavily but we do put out a little ammonium sulphite every year because soil pH is a little high so they are trying to acidify the soil a little over the next 10 years. So far our vine tissue samples show that we don’t have many deficiencies yet. But we might start a foliar feeding program in the coming years.

The next article will look at Marquette in the winery

The more than 2000 wines entered into Indy revealed! But who drank the two empty bottles in the foreground?

As he introduced the competition – in Purdue’s gorgeous Union Memorial Building – Christian explained that Indy is a
great place for new wines to get exposure and test the waters. This is partly because the competition organizers

Wine judges photograph the revealed wines

make great efforts to assemble a representative judging pool of winemakers, growers, enologists, chefs, sommeliers, distributors, retailers, consumers and wine writers.

Midwest Wine Press was lucky to be there, together with about 50 other judges. Over two days we smelt, sipped and spat (most of the time) our way through more than 2000 wines from about 10 countries and 40 US states.

Hybrids and other grape varieties grown in the Midwest featured strongly, including current rising stars like Marquette and older classics like Catawba and La Crescent. There were also meads, dessert wines and a range of fruit wines.

It was enormous fun being a judge — the glasses of wine came and left our table in unstoppable waves thanks to a

Christian Butzke, Purdue enologist, chief judge and organizer of Indy

kind army of volunteers. The wine styles or varieties came in separate flights of up to about 12 glasses, with each competing wine labelled only with a number. We marked each wine for clarity, color, aroma, taste, aftertaste and an overall mark, for a maximum total of twenty points. 0-11 meant no medal, 12-14 a bronze, 15-17 silver and 18-20 gold. For each variety or style of wine there was also a Best of Class award for the best of all.

As a novice judge I was lucky to be in good company. Mark Ganchiff (our MWP publisher) described his judging gig at last year’s Indy as like shooting baskets with Michael Jordan – I felt the same. Kim Doty who runs French Lick Wine & Spirits was our table’s lead judge. Kim

Jill Blume, Purdue enologist and executive director of the competition

was especially masterful assessing Midwest grown varieties and picking that special characteristic that would set a particular glass apart from the rest. Bill Whiting, director of wine education for Banfi, could give that confident, articulate assessment of a wine that most of us can only dream of. Then there was, David Ebert, a Purdue professor of electrical and computer engineering specializing in a field called visual analytics — but also a wine expert, able to deploy his analytic skills on any flight of wine.

MWP’s judging table: Banfi’s Bill Whiting, French Lick’s Kim Doty, Purdue’s David Ebert and our trainee from Easley Winery, Kim Utterback

For me, the La Crescents in our flight of white hybrids stood out, the Marquettes surprised for their full body and rich mouthfeel compared to a the few I’ve tasted in the past — and the meads and sherry style flights were also very tasty. The quality of the wines was generally very good.

The full list of winners can be found on the Indy International Wine Competition website.

A flight of Catawbas

Purdue’s viticulture professor, Bruce Bordelon shows off some hemp while taking wine judges on a tour of Purdue’s Meigs Horticultural facility

Hopps at the Meigs Horticultural facility

Purdue’s Christian Butzke kicks off Indy

Thanks very much to Purdue’s Jill Blume, enology specialist and Christian Butzke, enology professor,  for organizing such a well-run and fun wine competition — and for inviting and sponsoring MWP to attend.

This is the first blog from our new columnist Cindy Reynolds. With husband Dennis, Cindy is co-owner of  Somerset Ridge Vineyard & Winery in Kansas.

The view of our 20 acres of wine grapes is lush, green and beautiful after a spring of abundant rain and sunshine. Every grapegrower we know is thanking the wine gods because of our recent experiences with less than ideal weather. But this year’s advantageous growing conditions lead to another set of concerns: how to maintain our overly-vigorous vines.

Summer’s humidity will require lots of pruning, shoot-thinning and regular spray applications to avoid issues with fungus. So while much of our attention will be on controlling vine vigor and fighting disease, the real challenge, however, is finding staff to assist with the long list of vineyard duties, both now, and for the anticipated excellent harvest at the end of summer.

In fact, finding, training and supervising vineyard help is keeping many of us up at night according to my impromptu survey of Kansas Grape Growers and Winemakers Assocation (KGGWA) members. Nearly everyone mentioned the need to depend on family and friends – but with mixed results. Many have spent several growing seasons rehabilitating vines that had been ‘pruned” by inadequately trained help entrusted with a set of pruners.

Kristen Graue of Middle Creek Vineyard said finding vineyard help is one of their top concerns. ‘We use extended family, friends, our kids’ friends, and friends of friends.  It helps to have a big family!” said Kristen.

Several vineyards reported that they recruit teachers during the summer months as a source of dependable, adult help. ‘Vineyard help is a constant issue with no real answer I can see relative to full time vs. part time,” said Don Warring, owner of Nighthawk Vineyard & Winery– ‘Shared labor would be great but comes at the same time each year for all of us so it’s very hard to do. Same with sharing equipment cooperatively,” he added.

Somerset Ridge vineyard at harvest time last year

George Hoff, owner of Stone Pillar Vineyard and Winery, stated, ‘At my size automation wouldn’t be cost effective. Machines can’t sort out things like the recent hail damage.  Machines can have issues if there is not a trained operator and they even break as I’ve experienced in a lifetime of farming.”

Wendell Berry, in his book Bringing it to the Table: On Farming and Food captures our farming dilemma eloquently: ”Why do farmers farm, given their economic adversities on top of the many frustrations and difficulties normal to farming? And always the answer is: “Love. They must do it for love.” Farmers farm for the love of farming.”

So love is our fallback position, but maybe the future is looking a little brighter. Scott Kohl, directs the Viticulture and Enology Program at Highland Community College and is also part of the management team for VESTA (Viticulture Enology Science and Technology Alliance). ‘The news is generally good for the future because our numbers are going up,” said Kohl. ‘In the last few years we were thrilled to get four or five enrollees but now we are getting 8-9 students for each of four viticulture sessions we teach each year,” he explained. ‘These folks have advanced degrees in other areas so they just want to get the viticulture knowledge to start their own businesses.”

While this is good news, the average age of a Highland or Vesta student is 44.6 years old and since they are focused on opening their own business, they aren’t open to employment at one of our state’s existing grape-growing operations.

So our young industry is still working to find a solution to the challenge of lack of trained vineyard help and lack of resources to invest in automation.  However, looking on the bright side, this is a small price to pay for what looks to be an excellent grape-growing year in our state.

Let me know what you think! Would you expand your vineyard acreage if you had access to more help?

Please send any comments to creynolds@somersetridge.com (our comments section below the article has a technical issue and won’t post. We’ll sort it out soon!)

‘You’re coming to the Winery on a gravel road and you step into, ‘Wow, are we in California,'” said Hinterland co-owner Aftan Koenen about the impression she and her husband, Aric, deliver at their winery.

Aric and Aftan Koenen of Hinterland Vineyards

Koenen’s comment is part of an excellent short film produced by Pioneer Public Television using a taxpayer funded grant from the Minnesota Art and Cultural Heritage Fund. A link to that film appears at the end of this article.

The first criteria for any great regional winery is estate or locally grown grapes. Hinterland grows 10 acres of grapes next to the winery. Varieties grown include Frontenac, Frontenac Gris, LaCrescent, Marquette, Brianna and Petite Amie.

Aric Koenen told Midwest Wine Press that his dad farms 2,000 acres full-time and lives on the winery property. Hundreds of visits to Midwest wineries have taught me that if a family is successful at commercial farming, they usually can grow quality wine grapes too.

One large piece of evidence that the Koenen’s are serious about growing wine is their mechanical harvester. For quality winemaking, it’s important to use grapes that were picked all at once at the perfect time. Human labor often can’t pick fast enough to insure an ideal crop.

One of the standout wines at Hinterland is Brianna. (Unfortunately, the Brianna sometimes sells out, so call ahead if you have your heart set.) Aric explains that the most recent Brianna was done in a different style from years past.

Aric and Aftan demonstrate that true Minnesotans enjoy winter.

‘We added a prolonged cold soak prior to fermentation and also a different yeast,” he explained.  ‘Most growers want Brianna picked at 18 Brix, but we seem to gain a better taste profile at 20 Brix.  This is completely site specific for our vineyard.  We could easily bottle this vintage dry, but as we all know sweet wine sells in the Midwest.”

Making wine that the local customers like is a key to being successful Aftan told he Pioneer television film crew: ‘We have to go according to what people around here want, not what we want.”

Another thing that keeps people coming to Hinterland from all over the state is the winery’s restaurant, Aric said. The restaurant uses locally grown meat and vegetables, which are in abundance in this part of Minnesota. Flatbreads, sauces and dressings are made on site, which unifies the wine with the food.

When you visit a winery like Hinterland, it’s easy to wax romantic about a life of growing grapes and making wine in the country. Aric said the couple loves being winery owners, but it’s not always a glamourous  profession.

‘Starting a rural winery is an extremely hard and time consuming task,” Aric said. ‘You need patience and an extremely strong work ethic.  Growing grapes in this climate is unforgiving and nature throws curve balls at every chance.”

To view the film about Hinterland click: Hinterland Winery 

Homepage photo: Aftan in the Hinterland Vineyard during winter