Removable Poles Make it Easy to Cover Low Head-Trained Vines

In cold winter climates that receive some snow cover, geotextile has promise as a material for protecting marginally hardy or tender vines. Geotextile comes in rolls. The quickest way to apply it is to simply start at one end of the row and roll it out to the end of the roll. Rolling it up in the spring is also easy. Easy, that is, if the damn trellis poles are not in the way. Larry Paterson of Peterborough, Ontario is experimenting with removable trellis poles to solve this problem and make application of geotextile easy. The photolog that Larry kindly sent us illustrates the idea.

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Sabrevois Wine Tasting

Six winemakers from Quebec met with six Minnesota winemakers to taste wines made from the recently named Sabrevois grape bred by Elmer Swenson. Learn about their assessment of its winemaking potential, about an unusual flaw found in some of the samples, and how the flaw can be avoided.

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Creative Northern Viticulture Transforms a Chinese Village

The village of Dong Yuan, situated on the cold and arid steppes of Inner Mongolia, has flourished economically from the introduction of innovative grapegrowing techniques to minimize winter injury to roots. Read Tom's firsthand account of their success and how they did it.

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Tasting Grapes and Wines at Geilweilerhof

The German Federal Research Station at Geilweilerhof is famous for maintaining the second largest collection of grape germplasm in the world, including many interspecific hybrids. It also maintains the International Vitis Inventory, a catalog of 16,000 grape varieties. Geilweilerhof also is the home of grape breeder, Dr. Rudolph Eibach, who developed such noted varieties as Regent and Phoenix. This article summarizes Tom's visit to Geilweilerhof and the surrounding Rheinpfalz area in the fall of 1999.

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Kay Gray and Her Daughters: Winemaking and Tasting Results

This article recounts “Grayfest 97”, a 1997 blind tasting of wines produced from Kay Gray and nine of her hybrids. Among the wines tasted were E.S. 4-8-30 and E.S. 7-4-76 which have since been named ‘Louise Swenson’ and ‘Brianna’. See how they placed in the first (and last) Grayfest!

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Geofabric for Winter Protection

Grower John Antony in Quebec wraps his vines in geofabric (Arbotex) and then white plastic to protect from the winter cold. Note that his vines are head-trained to a stake, Mosel style, rather than on wires, making the wrapping easier.

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Plastic for Spring Frost Protection

The Norwegians are avid grape growers, but spring frost damage to shoots has been a problem. Arild Seyversen sent this picture of a vineyard in which 1 meter wide plastic is rolled out on both sides of the vine and pinned together at the top, forming a tent over the emerging shoots. The shoots grow up between the plastic sheets, protected from frost.

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