The goal of the Northern Grapes Project, begun in 2011, is to conduct research that will help producers overcome production and marketing constraints and increase the profitability and sustainability of emerging cold climate grape and wine industries in the Midwest and Northeast.
The Northern Grapes Webinar Series
Presented live the 2nd Tuesday of each month
12:00 Noon Eastern (11:00 AM Central)
7:00 PM Eastern (6:00 PM Central)
Presentations are recorded and archived for later review.
This series of monthly, one-hour webinars will cover special topics on growing, producing, and marketing wines made from cold-hardy Northern winegrape cultivars. Webinars will feature speakers from the Northeast and Midwest sharing their expertise and recent research on topics essential to cold-climate growers, winemakers, and winery owners.
The webinar format will allow you to view the program over the internet, ask questions, and interact with the speakers from the privacy of your home desktop. (Some bandwidth requirements apply).
To Register: Registration is free, but required. Further webinar information is available on-line at http://blogs.cornell.edu/northerngrapeswebinars/
Managing Acidity in the Winery
January 10, 2012
Cold-hardy cultivars such as Frontenac, St. Croix, La Crescent and Marquette are known for retaining acidity at ripeness, and managing it in the winery can present challenges for winemakers. Dr. Murli Dharmadhikari, Enology and Director of the Midwest Grape and Wine Industry Institute at Iowa State University, and Dr. Anna Katharine Mansfield, assistant professor of enology at Cornell University, will discuss chemical and biological methods for reducing acidity in wines made from Northern cultivars. Dr. Tim Martinson, director of the Northern Grapes Project, will provide an orientation to the webinar series, and a brief overview of the USDA-funded Northern Grapes Project.
Nuts and Bolts of Canopy Management
February 14, 2012
Canopy management involves manipulation of vine growth to achieve production goals, whether optimizing light interception, managing or minimizing disease pressure, adjusting cropping levels, or maximizing fruit quality. It is one component of a vineyard management system that includes site selection, cultivar, vine spacing, training system, fertility, and water management. These attributes will then determine the required intensity of shoot and cluster thinning, shoot positioning, shoot tipping, and fruit zone leaf removal throughout the season. Tim Martinson and Mike White will cover the when, where, how and why of these canopy management practices, and explore costs and benefits associated with them.
Setting the State for Future Growth: Winery Collaboration and Economic Impacts
March 13, 2012
To have a prosperous wine industry, a successful wine region needs collaborative wineries that understand, and can leverage, their contributions to the surrounding area. Our project includes several initiatives focused on the business side of wineries. In this webinar, Bill Gartner, University of Minnesota, will briefly introduce the marketing/economics related initiatives of the Northern Grapes Project. He will then focus on economic impact, what it is and what it is not, and how it is going to be measured, including the wine tourist’s contribution to overall economic impact. In part 2, Dan McCole, from Michigan State University, will address how wineries, particularly those that rely heavily on tasting room sales, can benefit greatly from collaboration. Whether it’s working together with other wineries to form a wine trail, collectively lobbying for favorable legislation, or partnering with non-wine tourism organizations to strengthen a tourism destination, wineries that build and maintain collaborative relationships are more likely to be successful.
Grape Disease Management Basics (and All About Anthracnose)
April 10, 2012
Downy mildew, powdery mildew, black rot, anthracnose – if left unchecked, these diseases and others can destroy a grape crop and severely compromise vine health and longevity throughout the northern grape growing regions. Fortunately, through cultural practices and timely application of fungicides, these diseases can be managed. However, for a management program to be both effective and economically sound, the right products must be used at the right time. Patty McManus, a plant pathologist with the University of Wisconsin, will discuss anthracnose, an emerging disease in the northern states that is especially troublesome on cold-climate cultivars. Wayne Wilcox, a plant pathologist with Cornell University, will cover the essentials in designing a fungicide spray program that takes into account fungicide, plant growth stage, and weather variables.dafd
Keep a Cork in It: Stabilizing Sweet Wines for Bottling
May 8, 2012
Residual sugar (RS) is an essential part of many wine styles, and in the northern varieties it can be especially useful. Depending on the titratable acidity and other characteristics, even “dry” wines may require a little RS to achieve a balanced mouthfeel. Sugar is food for people and microscopic organisms alike and in wine, unless steps are taken to ensure that the product is microbially stable, problems ranging from off-aromas to self-ejecting corks may appear. Chris Gerling, extension associate for enology in Cornell University’s extension enology lab, will discuss principles of filtration and other chemical & microbiological means of inhibiting or killing spoilage organisms, as well as the various costs and benefits.
Winery Sanitation Basics
June 12, 2012
12:00 Noon Eastern (11:00 AM Central)
7:00 PM Eastern (6:00 PM Central)
Randy Worobo, an Associate Professor in the Department of Food Science at Cornell University, is a well-known food safety expert. He has presented many winery sanitation workshops for the wine industry in California, and will cover the basics of winery sanitation in this webinar.
The Northern Grapes Project is funded by the USDA’s Specialty Crops Research Initiative Program of the National Institute for Food and Agriculture, Project # 2011-51181-30850.
