In the wine world, stress is thought to improve the quality of the grape, but in the high altitudes of western Colorado, growers are more likely to comfort the grape.
“Up here, you’re already stressing the grape,” said Joe Buckel, winemaker for Sutcliffe Vineyards near Cortez. “The altitude is stressing the grape. The environment is stressing the grape. Really, what you need to do is make sure the plants are as healthy as possible.”
Barely budded chardonnay grapes basked in the glow of fires burning in 50-gallon drums stacked high with wood, placed strategically between rows of vines to protect the grapes from freezing temperatures Tuesday. The barrels were so loaded with cottonwood and juniper collected from nearby ranches that some barrels were not expected to burn out for several days.
On a shivering cold night, the air did not exactly feel toasty, but Buckel said the flames would raise temperatures above freezing.
“This is the third year we’ve been doing it. We’ve had two fantastic harvests,” he said because this year’s harvest won’t be until September and October.
Buckel estimated less than 5 percent of the grapes have been lost to freezing.
“We definitely feel religious about it,“ he said. “When something works for you, it becomes superstition.”
A grateful owner, John Sutcliffe, said he plans to name a new wine, Tierra del Fuego, or land of the fires, in appreciation of the flames that save his fruit.
Clearing and loading the wood for the fires “is an incredible effort,” Sutcliffe said. “It’s full of spirit and joy, but it’s still remarkable work.”
Sutcliffe takes pride that his winery and vineyard does not skimp or take shortcuts in the wine-making process.
“To grow grapes here is to have some satisfaction, but there’s also the agony.” Sutcliffe said. “We are very proud we do every element of the process.”
Buckel said, “It’s difficult to grow grapes at this altitude. It’s definitely not your normal vineyard operation, or at least not the California model. We don’t really fit into that, but people like to try it here in Colorado.”
A common mistake is limiting irrigation to stress the grape. Because of the arid conditions of Colorado, Buckel does not think that is wise.
“(The vines) need a gallon in the morning and a gallon in the evening. There are people who won’t water their vines for a couple of weeks,” he said. “I think that’s the big reason why vineyards have not produced very well.”
In 2010 and ’11, the area of vineyards removed from planting exceeded new planting acreage as growers have downsized or left the industry, according to the 2011 Grape Grower Survey by Colorado State University’s Western Colorado Research Center in Grand Junction. The 2012 survey is not yet available.
Horst Caspari, a viticulturist with the Western Colorado Research Center, also thinks “people have been removing vineyards from places where they should not have been planted in the first place.”
Caspari thinks the situation stabilized last year with new planted vineyards exceeding removed vineyards, if only by 5 to 10 acres.
Within the last decade, new acreage was growing by an average of 50 acres a year in Colorado, Caspari said.
“We went from having too many grapes to maybe not enough,” he said. “I think we’re more in balance now than we have been.”
In a few weeks, Caspari said, he will know how well vines survived winter.
A hard freeze can crack and snap a vine, especially in late November or March and April when the vines still have sap or are beginning to get sap, Buckel said.
In the middle of the winter, when the vines are dormant, the vines are safer from the cold, he said.
In regions with less harsh conditions, it is not unusual for vines to survive for 80 years, but the life expectancy of a vine in Colorado is much less, about 40 to 50 years or so, Buckel said.
The winemaker is looking forward to the summer and the end of the vineyard fire season.
“I don’t count on (Tuesday) being the last one. I hope it is. It looks in our favor, but it could easily freeze again,” he said. “Usually, if we get through the first week of May, we’re in pretty good shape.”
jhaug@durangoherald.com
On the Net
Visit http://bit.ly/ZwZ08m to view a 2011 survey of Colorado grape growers:
