What wine grape to grow in Central Illinois???
John Myers
(catawba, niagra, and concord), and now I want to try some wine grapes.
Any ideas on varieties which can withstand the climate and make a good
homemade wine? Any ideas on where to get the plants in small quantities?
Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks
Lee Bertagnolli
Aurora grows pretty well here (Springfield). It's tolerant of our
weather extremes, and the grapes can produce a decent white wine.
Can't speak to a red. There are some people growing some red grapes
(Foch comes to mind), but the wines have been particularly unimpressive.
Are you in the Springfield area?
--Lee
Sent via Deja.com
http://www.deja.com/
SchlossGoist
news:KT8c6.47150$P5.18...@news1.rdc1.il.home.com...
------------------------
Hi John:
First off, with respect to cultivar selection, be sure to check with both
your County Ag folks as well as any commercial growers in your proximate
area.
Since so much about viticulture (and particularly about cultivar selection)
is site specific, it is very important to get your advice as close to home
as possible.
With this said, however, you may also wish to peruse my Viticulture FAQ &
Glossary (url below). In particular see section V7 wherein is a discussion
about matching the climate of the growing site with the cultivars likely to
thrive there.
Since you are successfully growing Catawba, Niagra, & Concord, I would bet
that you are in the climate region I call "Region IB". Therefore, I would
generally recommend the following cultivars:
White: Aurore, Cayuga White, Seyval Blanc, Vidal Blanc, Vignoles, &
Traminette
Red: Foch, Baco Noir, Chelois, & Leon Millot
Finally, if you have a very favorable site (particularly well draining
soils, well ventilated, with a southward facing aspect, average temps higher
than the norm for the area, etc) you might want to experiment with some
"marginal" cultivars like:
White: Chardonel, White Riesling, & Chardonnay.
Red: Chambourcin, & Cabernet Franc.
In closing, with respect to acquiring your cultivars, you will find a
listing of nurseries on some of the reference sites I list in sub-section 5
of section V1 of the FAQ.
Good luck. Hope this helps.
Prosit:
Ed
--
The Viticulture FAQ & Glossary - http://www.itsmysite.com/vitfaq
"I like on the table, when we're speaking,
The light of a bottle of intelligent wine."
-Pablo Neruda
Bill Frazier
yours. I grow grapes and make wine as a hobby and have been doing so for 5
years. So, I'm still new to this but have had some success.
I also reccommend that you contact your County Extension Office for advice
about grapes for your area. Also, Southwest Missouri State University has a
Department of Fruit Science that is serious about wine grape production.
You could contact them <http://mtngrv.smsu.edu>. Your own state university
system may have a similar fruit science department.
I have five varieties in my vineyard (140 vines). The whites are Vidal
Blanc and Chardonel. The reds are Baco Noir, Leon Millot and Norton. Both
white varieties make wonderful wine. Norton is my favorite red grape but I
just planted these last season. My vines won't be able to produce a crop
for a couple of years. However, if you buy a bottle of Stone Hill Norton
you will see why I like this grape. I had about given up hope that the
Bacos and Leons could make a good red wine. However, I think I was too
impatient with them. The 1999 Baco is turning into a very good red wine and
a blend of Baco and Leon is very good also. While the white wines are very
good to drink young the reds seem to need some time before they are at their
best. I guess this shouldn't be a surprise.
I should note that I originally had St. Vincent and DeChaunac grapes in my
vineyard. I gave up on them and pulled them up replanting with Norton and
Chardonel. I hated to pull up 4 year-old vines but they wines were not
good. If I knew in 1995 what I know now about wine grape varieties I would
have planted Vidal Blanc, Chardonel, Norton and Chambourcin. I believe
these four varieties would give you about the best wines possible for our
areas. The Chambourcin is grown by others in the area. It makes a fine dry
red wine that can take a lot of oak.
You can buy Chardonel and Norton from Chaumette Vineyard (St. Louis area).
Their phone numbers are
573-756-6574 and 314-444-1927. I bought my other varieties from
Foster/Concord Nurseries in New York. Their phone number is 800-223-2211.
Best regards,
Bill Frazier
Olathe, Kansas
John Myers wrote in message ...
>I live in Central Illinois. I want to try some wine grapes.
clyd...@my-deja.com
Hi John,
You've already received some great advice. I particularly like
Ed's "off variety" selections especially Chardonel. There's a winery in
S. Ill, Alto Pass, that's doing a nice job with this grape. Also
there's a red variety, Marechal Foch, that's being made into a
delectable wine by Christine Lawlor at Gelena Cellars in the North
western part of Ill.
Your state is in about the same "state" of the wine industry growth
that Missouri was 20 years ago. There is much excitement and quite a
bit of research taking place. Here's a partial list and some
information from Urbana:
http://w3.aces.uiuc.edu/NRES/faculty/Skirvin/cfar/winecult.htm
SIU in Carbondale is also doing quite a bit. A good friend of mine, Dr.
Brad Taylor is spearheading many projects there and I'm sure he would
be willing to lend a hand if you wanted to contact him.
I've had some good dealings with this nursery in Arkansas. They will
have 'most any variety that you'd want to plant and will sell in small
quantities:
http://www.alcasoft.com/arkansas/grape.html
latron
clyde