Thursday, Jul. 08, 2010

Feeling hot hot hot

By Andy Perdue, Wine Press Northwest

We're finally getting a good dose of heat here in Washington wine country. In fact, today we got too much heat.

By my readings, we reached 102 degrees by late afternoon. Grape growers tell me that vines shut down somewhere between 90 and 95 degrees to protect themselves. So basically, when it gets too hot, grapes aren't doing much ripening. To grape growers and winemakers, it does no good.

Last month, I visited Champoux Vineyards in Washington's Horse Heaven Hills and saw how master grape grower Paul Champoux tries to mitigate this issue. He has set up a second irrigation line that can help cool the air around the grapes. I've visited vineyards in the Yakima and Okanagan valleys that also use overhead sprinklers for the same effect. In many situations, growers don't need to reduce the temperatures much or for long, so it's often worth the effort.

After this year's cool spring, who thought Washington growers would be dealing with this? OK, just about everyone.