Drought could produce good wines in Midwest

Associated Press

HERMANN, Mo.

Most of the grapes in Glenn Warnebold’s vineyard in Missouri’s picturesque wine country are about two-thirds their usual size. Others have been reduced to raisins by the drought that burned up many crops across the Midwest this summer.

Yet Warnebold figures it could be a good year with the drought concentrating the fruit’s flavors and sugar, which will turn to alcohol during fermentation. His red Norton and white Chardonel grapes, though small, hold the promise of standout wine from a region better known for corn and soybeans.

Wineries have been popping up in grape-growing regions of Missouri, Michigan and other Midwestern states for years, but they’ve generally been seen more as tourist draws than quality vintners. Some are hoping this year will help change that, and in a summer that has been devastating for most farmers, grape growers have a bit to cheer.

“The fruit will be better, overall, for reds and whites, than last year, when it was wet,” said Tony Debevc, who has a 170-acre Ohio vineyard. “If it continues to be dry like this, the wine industry will be better overall. And personally, we can expand in the red category, and it wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing.”

That’s not to say everything is rosy. The drought still stressed the vines, making them less likely to survive a harsh winter and produce next season. But vineyard owners say the varieties commonly planted in the Midwest have roots that can reach dozens of feet below the surface to get at water tables, making them a bit more drought-resistant.

The harvest almost certainly will be smaller too. Warnebold figures he will get 2,500 cases of wine this year — 1,500 less than what he typically might expect — from his six-acre vineyard atop a bluff overlooking the Missouri River. But he routinely has set cases from each year aside as a hedge against “bad years,” so there won’t be a shortage.

This year’s wines from America’s heartland “will be nice, fruity and very approachable and soft on the palate,” predicted Diego Meraviglia, vice president and education director for the California-based North American Sommelier Association.

But he believes the drought has cost some grape varieties complexities that may hinder the wines’ abilities to age, meaning “you have to drink them within a year, or they’ll go bad.”

Vineyard owners in Ohio said they believe this year’s drought is just a taste of what’s to come with prospects that the climate is becoming warmer and drier.

Debevc, who owns Debonne Vineyards in Madison, Ohio, said he planted some varieties two years ago that need warm weather, even though they weren’t recommended for the area at the time. He said more-permanent changes down the road could include harvesting earlier in the year and setting up drip irrigations systems to supplement rain in dry years.

“I think there is a trend I’ve seen in my lifetime. I’ve seen more storms than when I was younger,” Debevc said. “I think we will adapt. For us in the vineyard industry, it’s a good thing. A little more heat, a little more dryness. Personally, it would allow us to have much more mature fruits, certainly in the reds.”