Area vintners not worried by heavy tropical rains

By Tasha Kates

Published: September 4, 2008

Although Virginia may be in a pre-emptive state of emergency as Tropical Storm Hanna approaches, local vintners aren’t worried that the rain will hurt their grapes.

Like other area winemakers, Barboursville Vineyards has been harvesting some of its ripe white grapes. Red grapes and some white varieties will remain on the vine through Hanna.

Luca Paschina, Barboursville’s general manager and winemaker, thinks his remaining chardonnay and red grapes will hold up over the weekend.

“If it’s two to three inches, it’s no problem,” Paschina said. “There aren’t any signs of rot or disease on the grapes. They definitely can take some rain.”

According to a map compiled Thursday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Central Virginia is on the western edge of Hanna’s path.

The National Weather Service is predicting as much as a half-inch of rain on Friday night, another two inches on Saturday and a half-inch more on Saturday night. Sunday is expected to be clear and somewhat sunny.

This year has been ideal for grape growing. Chad Zakaib, general manager of Jefferson Vineyards, said grapes need more water in the spring and benefit from a dry period as Central Virginia experiences between mid-July and August.

Last week, Zakaib’s vineyard got 9 1/2 inches of rain, most of which ran off because the ground was so dry.

“Those kinds of rains — fast, high volume, violent — don’t necessarily hurt us as badly as a week of slow drizzle where we get an inch-and-a-half every day for five days,” Zakaib said. “That is when every plant soaks up as much water as it can.”

For grapes, that means a higher water content than what vintners like to see. Winemakers use a brix reading to determine the sugar content of a grape. A brix rating of 22 to 24 is ideal, Zakaib said, but a foot of rain can bloat a good grape and reduce the quality of the wine.

“When we have fruit at 22 brix, like chardonnay, and we see a storm like this coming, we just go pick it,” Zakaib said.

Employees at Kluge Estate Winery and Vineyard sped up their Merlot grape picking this week once they realized a storm was coming. Kristin Moses Murray, spokeswoman for Kluge, said the vineyard plans to pick its cabernet franc and cabernet sauvignon grapes in about two weeks.

“I think that the rain is coming late enough that it won’t harm the season,” Moses Murray said.

Although local winemakers don’t seem concerned about Hanna, the remnants of Hurricane Ike could give them pause. On Thursday, the storm was approaching North America with the potential to follow Hanna’s path.

If the region gets daily rain from Ike, it could cause mold and mildew problems, said Tom Corpora, co-owner of Afton Mountain Vineyards. Soaking rains such as these could force Corpora to speed up his harvest, since the grapevines can’t be shielded from the rain.