Reaching the end of the harvest season when actual yields are compared with the expected yields given during the growing season, one must sit back and allow the year to pass before ones eyes just once more. This leads to brief evaluations of the entire growing season and thoughts of both, "glad it's over" and "wauohhhhh". The author would like to write about this year's growing season divided into two parts being the year as it happened and some findings at the Euro Farm. County and Roundtable News and future developments are included at the end.

Part one: The Year As It Happened

 The traditional first meeting of the Roundtable each year exclusively deals with the evaluation of the winter temperatures just past, and the potential of bud damage due to the winter's freezing. This year, the past winter was not too harsh, with temperatures reaching low's of around -20 C. However, a warming trend in late February and early March pushed the daytime highs over +15 C. This warming caused us some sleepless nights because in some locations occasional frosts were experienced as late as the first week of May. Some varieties unfortunately, were affected by it.

 Bud break started early this year and caused us to hope for a repeat the two previous year's season's. By mid-May and into the first week of June this year close to 80 acres of new plantings were planted in conditions close to perfect. Soil temperatures were above 12 C and occasional rains gave the young grapevines an ideal start.

 Bloom also started early this year as well. Zweigelt was the first vinifera to bloom, starting bloom on June the 1st. The occasional rainfall during this period did not cause concern and plant development was normal. But, by the end of June we started to receive more rain, as much as 2 inches at a time and was accompanied by high humidity.

  We became aware that the Niagara growers were also having to deal with more rain since the start of bloom and all realized that powdery mildew was going to be a major concern this year.

  To compound matters further, on July 14th, when many grape growers were returning from a Roundtable visit to the Pelee Island vineyards, the ferry found itself headed directly into a huge thunderstorm that produced, in addition to a lot rain, the other four letter word that no one wanted to hear: h a i l . Within 24 hours each roundtable member with e-mail received a notice advising of the problems the hail would cause and an ASAP spray schedule of how to deal with this.

  Intense monitoring would now be called for and for ourselves at our Harrow farm this meant a check for infection of the more sensitive varieties at least twice per week. As a result of this increased monitoring effort, we decided upon the following: shortening the spray-interval to 7 days; higher water output (1600 ltr/ha)to be used when spraying; and driving and spraying every row instead of every other row to improve coverage. We again used copper and sulfur in the spray program at the end of July. In my opinion, based on my previous experience, this particular spray stopped any mildew before it could have a serious effect on our crop. Fortunately, it was also during this very crucial time that we started to receive and benefit from a spray forecast report distributed via e-mail.

 For the remainder of the season the weather remained variable with higher humidity and lots of fog and dew. This weather led us to make the decision to spray a botryticide twice this year at our farm, once just before veraison and again 3 weeks later. Fortunately, there are 3 different botryticides available for us to use now.

 The Botrytis Day at Brock University was held on August the 10th and could not have had better timing. Those in attendance agreed to the importance of having a MILDEW DAY before the next growing season. It is hoped  Mildew Day will also be held in Southwestern Ontario, where a large turnout would be expected.

 The next major issue this year concerned Canopy Management, that is, tucking, leaf-cutting and leaf removal. As far as I am concerned, this year showed the VSP(Vertical Shoot Positioning) system in all its glory. After the tucking was done, the leaf-cutter could trim excess growth to improve air flow and drying of the canopy. Every little bit we could do helped, such as removing leaves on the eastward side of the grape row (planted in North-South direction).

Trimming helped most of ourr varieties especially our 3 year old Viognier planting that had about one third of it's clusters removed, this was a new venture for the Viognier variety.

 Nearing the end of August it became obvious that this year's harvest was not going to be as early as in the previous two years. The harvest dates, did however, turn out to be the average, and not late. Following two years of early harvests with very high sugars, the year 2000 harvest presented a few challenges. There was ample ground moisture this year, and this resulted in heavy berries. These heavier berries in turn caused a slowing down of the ripening process. It also appeared as though some of the varieties that we grow, especially some of the early maturing ones, would not be able to withstand the weather-related stress very long into the ripening season. We had to make a tough decision about when and in what state we would harvest the crop. Basically, we had to decide if we would rather have a clean crop but with less than 20 Brix or to watch the crop rot in the hope of Brix higher than 20.
 Currently, near the end of October, over 90 % of our grapes are harvested. Only our icewine harvest is left. The focus at the farm has shifted from harvest to clean-up spraying and winter work. As of October the 24th, we have not had a significant frost, although we have had two minor ones with temperatures of -0.6 C and -1 C. These temperatures were reached for no more than an hour each and had minimal effect on the grapes.

 I am very sure that there will be differences in opinion, but my view of the year 2000 is as follows:

 "most of the crop loads (tons/acre) made me wauoohhhh, but am I glad it's over."

Part two: Further Finding at the Euro Farm

 A growing season such as this year's provides challenges, but it also provides opportunities. This is especially important for a company such as ours that grafts grapevines out of their own vineyards. Varieties and clones can be watched and evaluated under ongoing growing conditions and all the findings, both good and bad, can be shared.

 In our French Elite Block (elite clone material obtained directly from France) we have two clones of Chardonnay (96 and 277), Viognier clone 642 , Sauvignon Blanc clone 297, Merlot clone 346,
Syrah clone 100 , Cabernet Franc clone 331 and Cabernet Sauvignon clone 169. These varietal clones are all grafted to SO4 rootstock; each clonal variety section is about 0.8 acres in size.
This year is the third year for these French Elite Clones and a crop was expected from them soon. Two varieties ended with very low crop-levels due to winter injury incurred last year and again this spring. These varieties were Merlot and Syrah. The Syrah crop was small but it was still sufficient to make a varietal wine for a small local winery.

 During the intensive spray-efforts July and August we found that the Chardonnay cl 277 had less powdery mildew infection than Chardonnay cl 96, while Viogier and Sauvignon blanc each had even less powdery mildew than the Chardonnay's.

 At harvest date a comparison between the Chardonnay clones showed no difference in yield tonnage, however, clone 277 was about 2 Brix higher than 96. (measurements taken from the bin with a handheld refractometer)

 The Viognier finished bloom was grossly overloaded with clusters and had to be thinned. (July 18 and 19) with more than one third of it's clusters being removed. The  crop was harvested on September 26 with a yield of 3.3 t/acre and almost 19 Brix. This crop also went to the same small local winery as the Syrah, for a varietal wine and will be the first Viognier wine originating from SW Ontario.

 To the west of this Elite block is an adaptation trial planting. This trial has two replications of 5 vinifera varieties, each on 6 different rootstocks. The purpose of the adaptation trial is to observe the performance of a variety on, different rootstocks given similar soil conditions and all other factors equal. The author's main focus in this trial, is the evaluation of bud-survival in spring and if anything else of interest happens, it will also be evaluatedt.

  The one  interesting thing that did occure year was the rotting fruit, also known as pre-harvest breakdown under adverse weather conditions.

 Another very interesting topic is the answer to the question: How is the REGENT doing?

 Regent is the hybrid composed of Diana (Mueller thurgau X Silvaner) x Chambourcin. In Germany Regent is listed and is considered to be a vinifera. The farm in Harrow has had Regent for a number of years, but this year was the first good crop year. We harvested an average of 3.6 kg per plant. This crop was split between the winemakers of our two largest local wineries and we anxiously await the upcoming red wines they will make from it.

 Next year we are looking forward to planting 4 of the clones of the Blauer Fruehburgunder or Pinot madeline from Geisenheim, as well as some Cabernet Foch. The Cabernet Foch is one of the newer varieties of the Swiss grape breeder Valentin Blattner. We are proud to have an evaluation trial of some of his crossbreds in Harrow. To date we have completed 3 years of evaluations of these newer varieties and are taking an intense look at 16 of them in the trial. After two evaluations, these varieties are felt to be comparable or better to the traditional red viniferas.

County and the Roundtable News:

Grape Tree Estate Winery in Leamington will be the fifth winery in the area and we all look forward to its opening this fall. This small winery, referred to earlier, will focus on VQA varietals.

The temperature data from the HOBO data loggers in 4 locations for the past 3 years, has been sent to Brock University for evaluation and comparison. As well, there is another ongoing temperature trial, with reading devices set at different levels in various vineyards.

We have been in contact with some Prince Edward County grape growers and look forward to meeting them in the near future.

During this winter we intend to meet and discuss IPM strategies and if we can implement them in our approaches.

On November the 28 and 29 there will be a Farm show in Leamington. I will be tending the Euro Booth. Hope to see many people there!