David

Written By Dr. Nita, Edited by Jess Trapeni  The 2024 season began similarly to 2023, with a relatively warm winter. As a result, the vines grew faster than usual, leading to bud breaks occurring 2-3 weeks earlier than in recent years. For example, in Northern Virginia, bud break happened in early April instead of mid-April. Fortunately, most locations did not suffer from damage due to late frost. From May to July, the weather was extremely dry, but some precipitation was observed in late August, September, and October. Specifically, Southwestern Virginia received more rain than other regions. Downy Mildew on underside of [...]

The regional reports for fall of the 2024 vintage follow, these reports were compiled and edited by Jason Burrus. Merlot Grapes Sunset Hills Vineyard Northern Regional Report Jason Burrus, Sunset Hills Vineyard 2024, for the second year in a row, saw above-average Brix across all varieties. In fact, 2024 Brix numbers exceeded those for 2023 through September 16. The vintage was also high-yielding. Sunset Hills Vineyard saw a 20% increase in yield compared to 2023. While we experienced drought conditions in 2023, drought didn’t set in until the beginning of August. In 2024, drought commenced much earlier, by the third week [...]

With the heat of summer coming on full force for many of us, we’ll hopefully see the vigor start to abate and dry weather continue. I wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone who made it out to the 2024 Summer Technical Meeting at Bluestone Vineyards in the Shenandoah AVA last week. I know it was tough to fit us in considering the timing of the meeting, and the vigor and work needing to be done in the vineyard. Your time is valuable, and we appreciate your willingness to step away from your vines to join us. The programming was [...]

Compiled and edited by Jason Burrus EASTERN VIRGINIA (Gonzalo Ortiz, Rustic Vintage, LLC, eastvagrowers@gmail.com) Here in the beautiful Northern Neck of Virginia, rain has been sporadic, daily high temperatures have been moderate, and nighttime temperatures have been cool. On our farm Chardonnay, which is our first to bud, bud break started the first couple days of April. The first week of April has seen Bud burst for Chardonnay these last two years on our three-year-old Chardonnay. There were six days with nighttime lows in the thirties in April with the last one being April 21. No frost scares on site in [...]

Written by Dr. Harner, edited and compiled by Jess Trapeni     Research Updates from the Viticulture Lab at Virginia Tech   The growing season seemed to start with a bang, and we are now well into my first year of grape cultivation and field research as a new Assistant Professor of Viticulture and Viticultural Extension Specialist for Virginia Tech, based at the AHS Jr. AREC in Winchester. We have had a busy time so far putting in a small block of vines and setting up some new experiments while working to wrap up others that are ongoing. Our research [...]

Written by Dr. Ting, Compiled and Edited by Jess Trapeni A summary of two fruit thinning experiments involving shoulder thinning and cluster halving. Introduction Fertile Virginia soils can often produce vigorous grape vines with a heavy crop load that struggle to fully ripen. It is common practice to reduce crop load by pruning and cluster thinning to decrease shading and disease pressure, increase sunlight exposure, and encourage ripening. Crop reduction is also thought to improve overall vine balance and prevent stress that can lead to lower fruitfulness in subsequent years1. However, crop reduction comes at a measurable cost. In her landmark [...]