Tag Archives: Bruce Bordelon

Purdue Profs reflect on Calif. fires

27 Friday Oct 2017

Posted by in California, Newspaper Column 2017, Uncategorized

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The wildfires ravaging Northern California and its famed wine country will have a devastating effect there. But Purdue’s Professor of Food Science Christian Butzke expects little impact in Indiana.

grape-sense-logo“It might affect prices but probably not as terrible as the pictures suggest,” said the enology professor. “Vineyards are irrigated so they won’t burn as fast. This is a climate change thing. Spring and early summer brought a lot of rain and a lot of vegetation grew around the vines. Now that dried vegetation is on fire.”

 

Bruce Bordelon

Bruce Bordelon

Even those scorched vineyards will get a second life. “I assume it’s a matter of replanting,” said Bruce Bordelon, Professor of Horticulture and wine grape specialist. “In some cases that might be a blessing, a chance to change varieties or clones, rebuild old trellises, etcetera, that otherwise might not have been done. I guess it depends on whether they were insured and if insurance will pay enough to make up for the very high value of the land and grapes grown there.”

 

Bordelon added the disaster could aid future harvests. The large wine regions have had considerable labor shortages at harvest time. Bordelon said most new plantings could be set up for as much automation/mechanization as possible.

Butzke, who leads Purdue’s annual Indy International Wine Competition, sees the loss in a more personal way. He has many friends working in the California wine industry. “I have several colleagues and a business partner in wine country. This is quite personal.”

 

cbutzke

Christian Butzke

Paradise Ridge winery was one completely destroyed on the first day of the fires. The winery’s owner Rene Byck has visited Purdue to help judge the annual wine competition.
There is one impact that could reach the Midwest. Though most wineries have harvested 70-90 percent of their grapes, smoke contamination could happen in the remaining fruit on the vine. “Damage from smoke can occur and it’s not a pleasant characteristic,” Butzke said. “It’s like sitting next to a campfire, you’re going to smell like smoke afterward.”

 

Fortunately, Butzke added, the biggest part of California’s harvest should be complete by now with the wines safely aging in barrels. The damage to any remaining fruit, especially late-ripening Cabernet Sauvignon, could be significant because of the wine’s high market value.

Barring further damage, neither professor thought there would be much price impact in Indiana when the 2017 vintage is released. Both lamented the terrible tragedy, loss of life, and damage to homes and businesses.

Could Southern Ind. be next Napa?

19 Sunday Mar 2017

Posted by in Indiana, Napa/Sonoma, Newspaper Column 2017, Uncategorized

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No, Southern Indiana will not, and cannot, be the next Napa Valley. Geez!

After more than 200 Grape Sense columns over eight years, it’s time for a rant. Get a glass of something bold like a California Zin, a Central Coast Syrah, or Ted Huber’s Bordeaux-style blend called Heritage.

grape-sense-logoIn the last few months a couple of newspaper pieces on “Indiana wine” have surfaced in Midwestern media. The most recent Indiana wine story appeared Feb. 28 in the Louisville Courier-Journal. That story featured the headline I’m mocking above. As a 20-plus year newspaper veteran and 8-year wine writer, it’s important to note that almost all newspaper headlines are written by copy editors and certainly not writers or reporters.

The headline, and unfortunately the story, does little for the Indiana wine industry. And even worse, does little to inform readers about Southern Indiana wine. There is nothing wrong with a puff piece when you get little media attention. But in theory the writer got paid for the story and the newspaper took it as a credible feature.

The story in question begins like this:

“When most people talk about great wine, they often refer to vino from Napa Valley, France or Italy. But locals will tell you that some of the best wines come from the rolling hills of Southern Indiana.”

Who are those locals who say some of the ‘best wines’ come from the rolling hills of Southern Indiana? It’s certainly not a single winemaker or consumer in Southern Indiana because none are quoted in the story.

Who is the mystery source so enamored with Indiana wine?

There is an argument to be made, by an old newspaper curmudgeon perhaps, that the headline was condescending.

The story’s writer did quote one winery’s marketing representative. There was a single quote from Purdue’s Bruce Bordelon about Indiana’s growing season. That’s a good and authoritative source. The author also quoted the Wine and Grape Team’s new state marketing spokesperson, a very recent college grad, who added that Indiana is a very nice place.

The story, which you can read for yourself here, doesn’t say anything quantitatively or qualitatively about Indiana wine.

The truth is there are some very good wines being made in Indiana and particularly down south. Will they ever be as good as Napa or Bordeaux? Wine is about the region where it’s grown. Wine regions can be compared for contrast or similarities but wearing the ‘next best thing’ title doesn’t help anyone making fermented Hoosier grape juice.

Indiana winemakers, owners, and marketing folks must be smarter than to fall all over any reporter for any piece of public relations. Those people need to offer up winemakers and winery owners for interviews. They need to do everything to get the writer or PR person to taste the wines and educate them what constitutes good Indiana wine. Well-informed wine writing can boost the Indiana wine industry.

The puff pieces are better than nothing but when an opportunity arises to tell Indiana’s story, Indiana wineries must do better.

Napa be damned! Give me a glass of Vignoles or Chambourcin, please!

Rain Impacts Indiana Vineyards

24 Friday Jul 2015

Posted by in Indiana, Midwestern States, Newspaper Column 2015

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Indiana’s corn and soybean crops have sustained $475 million in rain and flood damage this summer according to Purdue University agriculture economists. Indiana’s grape crop and vineyards haven’t escaped the soggy summer woes either.

Grape Sense LogoThe rains have hurt vineyards most in Central Indiana while southern vines have been spared. “All the rain this year has made it especially difficult to control diseases,” said Bruce Bordelon, Purdue Professor of Horticulture and specialist in commercial grape and wine production. He said many vineyards avoided disease problems thanks to a dry month of May.

Purdue's Bruce Bordelon

Purdue’s Bruce Bordelon

“But, I’ve seen a tremendous amount of anthracnose (leaf spots and blotches) and black rot. Shocking to see it so bad,” Bordelon said. “In some cases, it is due to a poor spray program, but in others, it is due to high disease pressure. We’ve had too many rains too close together to maintain adequate fungicide coverage.”

Purdue’s grape expert said many of the problems could still be overcome with the most critical weeks of veraison (grape ripening) still ahead.

Don Pampel, owner of Whyte Horse Winery near Monticello, owns one of those vineyards impacted by the downpours. “The heavy rainfall has made some of our vineyards extremely wet and holding water in the rows for extended period of time,” he said. “This has caused stress on the vines and depleted some of the nutrients that they depend on and we are having to spray nutrients where we have not had to in the past. The frequency of the rain has caused challenges to keep the vines protected from fungus that the rain spreads.

“We will not know the damage until it gets closer to harvest and then it is too late.”

Oliver's Parker

Oliver’s Parker

A big challenge with the heavy rainfall is vineyard management. There is the obvious cost of additional spraying and loss of crop but fighting the rainfall’s effect increases labor cost. Bernie Parker, Vineyard Manager for Oliver Winery, said his crews have tried to stay ahead of the heavy rainfall by working the vines.

“Mildews have been a problem but we have had a lot more midseason growth that requires more manpower to manage,” Parker said. “We are shoot positioning and leaf pulling to open the canopy.  This allows for good air flow which helps with drying the clusters and canopy, also reducing the mildew problems.”

Oliver’s Creekbend Vineyard, just north of Bloomington, is on glently rolling slopes allowing excess rainfall to run off preventing flooding. But Parker notes the heavy rains cause a proliferation of weeds to be pulled.

Creekbend was one of many Indiana vineyards to take a hit in 2014 and 2013 from extremely cold winter and spring weather. But Bordelon noted new vines and retrained vines should be benefiting from the additional moisture. Parker agreed that his re-trained vines were looking strong.

Jim Butler

Jim Butler

The rainfall’s impact lessens in the south. At Butler Vineyards, not far from Oliver, things are looking pretty good. “If we get drier weather starting around the first of August we will have a good year,” Jim Butler said. “We have a large crop set on the vines. We have run a tight spray schedule, by that I mean timely sprays of the right materials to prevent the start of fungal infections.”

Butler said normal August weather should deliver a strong crop despite all of the early rains. Rains have been mostly normal in the Ohio River Valley region.

”In Southern Indiana we have been very lucky in missing all of the large rain events and as a result we have remained very disease free,” said Ted Huber, Huber Orchard and Winery. “Vine growth has been very good plus we continue to remain warmer and sunnier than other parts of the state.

“Therefore, many of our varieties are already in veraison and picking up sugars quickly. We estimate that our harvest will being on August 15.”

Huber has the state’s largest vineyard with more than 20 varietals planted. Just down the road at Turtle Run Winery owner Jim Pfeiffer said the rainfall had not caused any problems for his vines.

Bordelon said the heavy rain and resulting challenges means some Central Indiana vineyards are likely to see a reduced harvest. A sunny and warm month of August could boost the crop as ripening gets underway.

Indiana Vineyards Took Vortex Hit

15 Monday Sep 2014

Posted by in Indiana, Newspaper Column 2014

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Creekbend vineyard vines in renewal.

Creekbend vineyard vines in renewal.

When most Hoosiers think of weather problems and crops it’s cornfields that come to mind. But the winter cold is the big issue of 2014 for farmers of a different type – vineyard managers.

Grape Sense LogoThe frigid cold of early 2014 damaged up to 25 percent of the state’s grape crop, according to Purdue’s Bruce Bordelon. “It’s very widespread in the northern part of the state,” he said. “From the Bloomington/Columbus line and north the damage is pretty severe.”

The extreme cold temperatures damaged the vine structure in many vineyards. “So a lot of us are retraining vines from the ground up,” Bordelon explained. What that means to those with the cold weather issues is that sections of the vineyard restarted may be out of production for two years. “We’ll have a light crop next year,” Bordelon said. “There should be a partial crop in two years then back to full production in 2017.”

Oliver's Parker

Oliver’s Parker

One of the hardest hit vineyards was the state’s second largest at Oliver Winery. The Creekbend Vineyard just west of Oliver’s tasting room on Hwy. 37 suffered damage to 20-25 percent of its vines, according to vineyard manager Bernie Parker. “We’ll be making less than half of the Creekbend (label) but Creekbend is only about three percent of our total production. There is an economic impact because we’re still having to put in the same effort in the vineyard to re-grow these vines. It may take more effort.”

Parker had to restart 9,000 of 36,000 vines in the 54 acre vineyard. The largest portion of the Oliver wines though are produced from grapes purchased to produce their signature and popular sweet wines. The higher-end Creekbend wines are grown in their vineyard. The bulk of that vineyard is planted in Chambourcin, Traminette, Vignoles, Chardonel, and other typical Indiana wine grapes.

BruceOthers who suffered damage may have been able to recover a crop with good vineyard practices. “Grapes are an amazing plant in their ability to produce fruit,” Bordelon said. “We always adjust the production through pruning and cluster thinning. We usually have way more fruit than we really need. With some of these (grape) varieties, with lighter pruning, we’ll still be able to have close to a full crop.”

Down south Ted Huber saw little damage in his vineyards atop the Ohio River Valley hilltops. We’re probably going to pull off an 85-90 percent grape crop,” Huber said. We had a little bit of minor damage in one vineyard so by choice we decided to do a renewal on it. It still had one-third to a half crop on it anyway, but it just made a lot of sense to take it out of production.”

Huber has the state’s largest vineyard but is the second biggest wine producer. Oliver is by far the state’s biggest wine producer with the second largest vineyard. Oliver buys the fruit for much of its 300,000 case production. Approximately half of the Oliver total production is the popular sweet wines.

AVA Adds to Midwest’s Wine Credibility

26 Tuesday Feb 2013

Posted by in Indiana, Newspaper Column 2013

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The Indiana’s Uplands region being declared an American Viticulture Area Feb. 12 is good news for all Midwestern wineries.

Grape Sense LogoThe U.S. wine industry is driven by tourism. For those who take wine seriously and want to learn more about wine, hitting up AVA-designated areas assures a level of serious winemaking and even quality.

Michigan leads the way in the Midwest with four AVAs: Fennville, Leelanau Peninsula, Lake Michigan Shore, and Old Mission Peninsula. Ohio has four AVAS: Lake Erie, Isle St. George, Grand River Valley, and Loramie Creek. Illinois has the Shawnee Hills AVA and shares the Upper Mississippi AVA with Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin.

The Ohio River Valley AVA is shared by Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana. Kentucky has no other designated grape production area and Indiana did not until the Uplands announcement.

bordelon4Blog“It just kind of affirms what we already know that we have some excellent grape growing regions and they’re unique here in the Midwest,” said Bruce Bordelon, Viticulture Specialist at Purdue University. “The Uplands region is different than southwest Indiana. Posey County and Gibson County have different climate and soils. There really is a difference in the (grapes) that we grow and the quality that we get between regions. It’s those little minor differences that makes vintages special and make our varietal-labeled wines special.”

Oliver Winery, near Bloomington, IN., is one of the Midwest’s largest. With production in the 400,000-case range business is good. But Oliver embraced the Uplands news every bit as much as the other eight wineries in the Uplands.

Oliver4Blog“It allows us to qualify as a true viticulture area and raise the level of awareness that there is something special about this region,” said Kathleen Oliver, Executive Vice President. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to capitalize on that by saying there is something really unique about these wines. We are producing great quality wines; we can do it just like Napa and Sonoma. We are something special. And it gives us the opportunity to look for a more premium price.”

The nine established wineries in the Uplands AVA are Best Vineyards Winery, Elizabeth; Brown County Winery, Nashville; Butler Winery, Bloomington; Carousel Winery, Bedford; French Lick Winery, West Baden Springs; Huber Winery, Starlight; Oliver Winery, Bloomington; Turtle Run Winery, Corydon; and Winzerwald Winery, Bristow.

Fall - Christmas Good Time to Visit Uplands Wine TrailJim Butler, Butler Winery also near Bloomington, spent nearly 10 years working to achieve the AVA designation. He agreed that Indiana has a niche with white Traminette and red Chambourcin wines that are grown throughout the Midwest and excel in the Uplands region. But he also sees other wines doing well and a future for more traditional plantings.

“Late harvest Vignoles and Vidal does wonderfully,” Butler said. “We’ve been doing Chardonnel. I think we’re going to see some more viniferas (think traditional wine grapes) planted. “It takes four years to plant a vine and then get your first crop. It’s going to be a decades-plus process to zero in on those varieties that are going to give us the product that we want.”

The 4800-square-mile Uplands AVA stretches from the Morgan-Monroe County line near Bloomington south to the Ohio River. The east-west boundaries run from Jasper in Dubois County to Knobstone Ridge near Starlight, overlooking the Ohio River Valley.

Howard W. Hewitt, Crawfordsville, IN., writes about wine every other week for 22 newspapers in three states. You can contact him with questions or comments at: hewitthoward@gmail.com