04/11/2006

Record-Eagle/Douglas Tesner
Workers for Mutual Farm Management install a plastic system at the Croft LLC Vineyard on Old Mission Peninsula. This year the vineyard will have three tunnel systems 650 feet long. This will be the first time the system is used for wine grape plants for a full season. The system works much like a greenhouse and has sensors that monitor the temperature, humidity and moisture.

In search of the perfect grape

'Tunnels' help growers extend the season

By Bill O'Brien

bobrien@record-eagle.com

Record-Eagle/
Douglas Tesner
The Croft LLC Vineyard on Old Mission Peninsula will have three tunnel systems 650 feet long.

MAPLETON — James Thompson says he's no scientist, just a grape grower who wants to provide quality fruit for northern Michigan's budding wine industry.

But there's plenty of science involved in Thompson's latest viticultural venture. He's installed a series of long white "tunnels" over a patch of Old Mission Peninsula vineyards.

The idea: create a giant greenhouse to extend the grape-growing season and grow fruit as ripe and sweet as the best wine grapes from France or Germany.

"We're still basically in a learning (process)," Thompson said. "But theoretically you could duplicate any climate you want to duplicate."

Thompson is president of Mutual Farm Management, operator of Croft LLC Vineyard on Old Mission Peninsula that's owned by local oil and gas businessman Martin Lagina. It's among a handful of peninsula vineyards that grow grapes for other area wineries.

Steel-framed, plastic-covered tunnels enclose about three-quarters of an acre of Merlot and Cabernet Franc grapes — the red grapes that don't always have enough time to fully develop in northern Michigan's growing season. The tunnels protect against spring and fall frosts and freezes, and keep warmer air around the vineyards longer. They also protect grapes from birds, insects and disease.

"We don't always have the best weather for ripening (red grapes)," said Thompson, who expects to try the tunnels over other types of grapes.

The covers come from a company in England called Haygrove Tunnels. They're used there and in other countries to cover strawberry patches and other low-level crops. The experiment on the Old Mission Peninsula is believed to be a first for the wine industry.

The covered vineyards should have a two- to three-week jump on outdoor vines this spring, and could add several weeks to the end of this fall's growing season. Thompson said his crew covered about three-quarters of an acre last fall, but couldn't reach any conclusions because it was already an ideal growing season.

Thompson said this year's crop will be more telling, although it may take another season or two to determine if a longer season will make a notable difference in wine quality.

"We will know if it made a difference in the fruit," he said. "Then we'll have to see if it makes a difference in the wines."

It's an expensive venture. Thompson said it costs around $50,000 an acre to cover the vines, and a wine will be more expensive to recoup the investment.

"I expect it to be a niche," Thompson said. "It's very labor intensive."

It remains to be seen if consumers will pay higher prices for locally grown wine.

"I think the big question is how much more expensive it will make the wine," said Ron White, owner of the Blue Goat wine shop in Traverse City. "The real test of it is once it's produced and on the shelf, what are people willing to pay?"

Lee Lutes, a wine maker at Black Star Farms near Suttons Bay, said he used some of Thompson's covered crop last year and it was "very good quality." Lutes said the tunnels could make a significant difference in years when the weather is poor for grapes or in marginal production areas.

"If they could extend this first part of the (growing) season, that could make a really big difference," Lutes said.