By Evan Dawson, Managing Editor
Photo at right shows the Data Layers map on NYVineyardSite.org; below is Professor Alan Lakso, courtesy Cornell
If you have ever thought, even for a brief moment, that owning a vineyard and winery would be fun, consider this: The first decision often turns out to be the biggest mistake.
That decision, of course, is what grapes to plant, and where.
With support from the New York Wine & Grape Foundation, Cornell has launched an ambitious program and website dedicated to that pursuit. The site is NYVineyardSite.org.
"We're seeing more people who want to get away from the corporate grind," professor Alan Lakso told me. "They sort of get caught up in the romance of starting a vineyard. Our goal is to help them make the best decisions before a few years have passed and they're looking around, asking what might have gone wrong. Because at that point we often have to say, 'There's not much you can do here. Plant somewhere else.'"
Lakso, along with his colleague Tim Martinson and other members of the Cornell staff, have to tell surprised winery owners the hard truth. Undoing a mistake can cost tens of thousands of dollars and many years. "You can waste a good site with the wrong variety, and you can waste good varieties on the wrong site," Lakso said.
The website's most valuable tool is the interactive map, which is easy to use even for those with no scientific background. It can be used to show color-coded temperature shading, showing which parts of a particular region are more likely to see temperatures fall below -5 degrees farenheit, or -10, or -15. It can also show the average growing degree days for given areas, or slope, or drainage.
It's cool stuff. If you're into that sort of thing, it's extremely cool stuff.
But it has a long way to go.
"Our eventual goal is to allow users to click on a variety, like cabernet sauvignon," Lakso explained. "Then the map would show the conditions necessary to grow consistently good or ripe cabernet. The map would reveal where these conditions converged, indicating where a new cabernet vineyard would be likely to be successful."
Even in the Finger Lakes, I asked?
"Sure, there are sites for it," Lakso said. "Far fewer sites for it than we'd find for riesling, but that doesn't mean cabernet can't succeed in the Finger Lakes. And the website will be designed to reveal those locations."
To get to that point, Cornell has a great deal more research to do. And they'll need to use more advanced technology to improve the map details. For now, the map is not nearly as specific as Lakso would like to see.
For example, Lakso explained that the so-called "Banana Belt" does exist. That refers to the southeast side of Seneca Lake, where growers like to say a combination of factors makes for slightly warmer sites. "To an extent, it's true," Lakso told me. "A major factor is wind, which can blow straight down the lake from the north in the winter, emptying out around Hector. If the wind shifts, as it can, that warm air is gone. But they tend to get that warm winter wind off the lake, which is protective."
So why, I wondered, doesn't the "Banana Belt" show up more visibly on the map?
"Right now, the map reflects a measurement of blocks of area, and they're rather large," Lakso said. "We're talking about three miles. Do you know how much can change in three miles? I've seen one single vineyard with six degrees difference from simply the top to the bottom. That's not uncommon. But the current map can't reflect that."
Cornell has 90 temperature sensors that can take updated readings every 30 minutes, but Lakso is hoping for more advanced aerial imaging, too. Improving the map will require more funding, and Foundation president Jim Trezise, who calls this one of his all-time favorite projects, is pushing hard for it.
"Alan’s project was by far the most costly," Trezise said regarding the decision to pursue it several years ago, "but also a great investment in terms of growing the industry and improving quality. The concept was to use modern, space-age technology to save current and prospective industry members a lot to time, effort and money."
So is it working? Trezise said that it's hard to get a perfect gauge for how many growers have used the site, but he expects it's significant already. "They can do 90% of the necessary exploration on their computer with a cup of green tea on a Sunday morning," he said.
Cornell takes no position on a single best or warmest site for grape growing. Decades ago, Hermann Wiemer communicated with such luminous figures as Dr. Nelson Shaulis. Records indicate that Cornell was pursuing the question of the warmest sites as early as the 1960s, and Hermann's communications indicated that a site on the west side of Seneca offered the most heat. That site is in Dresden, and a look at the new Cornell imaging map gives clues as to why. That warm winter air that Lakso described gliding down the lake runs into a nose of land that protrudes from the west side. That's Dresden. Then, looking west, there are no other bodies of water for many miles, so in the summer the warm air arrives in Dresden uninterrupted.
For this writer, it's a clue as to why the Dresden vineyards were able to withstand the infamous Christmas Massacre in the early 1980s, when so many other vinifera sites lost everything to a huge shift in temperature and extreme cold.
These days, Lakso wouldn't be interested in declaring one site or another as superior. Rather, he wants to find the sites that are superior for certain varieties of grapes. "We've already spoken to one grower who was going to plant pinot noir up their hillside, but looked at the website and realized that would be a bad idea!" Lakso said.
But without further funding, the website project could stall. "For 2011, there are more than $1 million in funding requests for very worthwhile projects, and less than $100,000 of private sector funds," Trezise explained. "The projects that don’t get funding won’t get done, a loss to the researchers and the industry. The researchers need to do something, so they might turn to other crops or, perish the thought, go to other universities."
Lakso has no plans to go anywhere else, but he'd like to see this project completed by the end of this year. The need, he explained, is greater than ever. And part of the reason is climate change, which one might assume would make it easier to grow grapes in places like the Finger Lakes.
"Not necessarily," Lakso said. "Summers have seen very little change over 30 years. But winters are getting milder. That's the biggest difference."
So why wouldn't that automatically benefit growers?
"Climate change brings more erratic weather, and that's potentially a problem. Wild swings in temperature can be devastating, even if temperatures don't fall as far as they once did. If we get more of those warm stretches during the winter, some vines could begin to lose their winter hardiness."
The moment when things started to sound ominous, Lakso smiled. "Climate is what you expect, but weather is what you get. And we get something a little different every year. We're doing our best to understand it, and if you ask me, that's fun."
This is a fascinating project. I've noticed many universities getting involved in growing the wine industry of their state (Virginia Tech, Iowa State, U of Minnesota for example), but this might be the most involved project I've heard of. What would be cool would be to see this as an overlay on the geologic makeup of an area, if that information is available at that level, to help further see what varieties would be viable at a site.
Posted by: Wineaccguy | March 23, 2011 at 09:59 AM
Great question. I've asked Professor Lakso to stop in with an answer on that! But I can tell you that evaluation of the soil components is part of the equation.
Posted by: Evan Dawson | March 23, 2011 at 10:16 AM
Uh, does this project cover NY State in its entirety?
Posted by: Dan McGurn | March 23, 2011 at 10:26 AM
Dan -
Yes, absolutely. Given my own geographic location, I focused a bit on the Finger Lakes, but the Foundation serves the state, and Cornell research benefits the state. My apologies for lack of clarity.
Posted by: Evan Dawson | March 23, 2011 at 10:29 AM
Yes thanks Evan, I just linked to the site.
I appreciate all your reports.
I haven't been to the Finger Lakes since I was a lad so every time I read your reports, I am encouraged.
Looking forward to reading your book.
Posted by: Dan McGurn | March 23, 2011 at 10:44 AM
Thanks, Dan. There are a lot of interesting and impressive things happening in the Finger Lakes. It's an exciting time in the local wine industry's history.
Posted by: Evan Dawson | March 23, 2011 at 10:59 AM
Dan, I thought the same thing originally, but I checked out the site and yes, it covers the whole state... even some areas that I don't think of as wine regions.
This is a very cool project -- one that deserves funding in my opinion.
Posted by: Lenn Thompson | March 23, 2011 at 10:59 AM
On the web site there is a page for Educational information on site evaluation that does show a general NY state map of the main soils, plus a map showing the patterns of glaciation that occurred. For example Long Island was the end of the glacial push in that area leaving a raised gravelly, sandy strip called a terminal moraine. That is consistent with the geology. However, in most of NY the glaciers mixed up the bedrock and soils so much that soil variability is extreme. Also in Western NY after the glaciers melted, there were huge lakes that laid silt over all the mixed up soil for hundreds of years. So in many areas in NY where grapes are grown the main geological features don't necessarily predict very well the soils in any specific spot. Each site needs to have soil analyses done. Its a real challenge for NY growers.
By the way, there is a large new research and extension grant funded by the USDA for helping eastern US growers led by Dr. Tony Wolf in VA Tech that includes work on site selection in several states in the East. We will continue the development and improvement of the NY site and collaborate with others to develop web-based systems for their states. That grant project is just starting but it should be a big help in the near future!
Posted by: Alan Lakso | March 23, 2011 at 11:11 AM
Just to expand on Dr.Lakso's excellent explanation of Long Island geology - there were actually 3 glacial retreats that took place during the Wisconsin stage of the Pleistocene Epoch which left 3 separate and distinct moraines on Long Island. The first one was the Ronkonkoma Moraine which was laid down about 50,000 years ago and carved out the south shore of the Island. Around 20,000 years ago the Harbor Hill Moraine stopped to deposit a ridge that trends SW to NE from Brooklyn to Port Jefferson. Lastly the Roanoke Point Moraine formed the geology of the North Fork and follows a path from W to E from Port Jefferson to Orient Point.
From these separate moraines, the glacial melt water brought rocks, gravel, sand and silt down to form the farmland we have today known as glacial outwash plains.
Throughout our district soil types are quite distinct and even within the soil types themselves, we are seeing lots of variation and terroir effects due to the changing proportions of silt, sand and gravel in the soil profiles. These can change quickly within the same vineyard and have led us to recognize the areas best suited for certain varieties: i.e. greater concentrations of sandy, gravelly loam are more conducive for Sauvignon Blanc - higher levels of silt loam favor varieties like Merlot.
Posted by: R. Olen-Harbich | March 23, 2011 at 12:05 PM
Fascinating, important work. I think we often neglect Cornell's impact on the region, but this again proves what a tremendous resource it is - and how it is building the foundation necessary to really make the region all it can be.
Posted by: Scott | March 23, 2011 at 09:57 PM
Rich - I'm wondering if you could elaborate a bit on your view of SB preferring sandy/gravelly soils, versus Merlot doing better on soils with more silt content. Do you think it's a water/vigor issue, or do you see other effects? Not doubting your statements, just wondering if you could elaborate a bit.
Evan - thanks for highlighting this work. The site has been a great help to those of us who get calls from people wanting to start vineyards in NY. I would never suggest that somebody make their final decisions based solely on this information, but it's a good place for folks to start.
Posted by: Hans WP | March 24, 2011 at 10:38 AM
Hans -
I admire the work, and I admire the approach of the folks at Cornell like yourself. You understand and promote science, but it's not dogma. It's open to discovery. It is utterly refreshing.
Hey, do you know where I could find a good place to plant Grenache around here?
Posted by: Evan Dawson | March 24, 2011 at 11:54 AM
Hans - Of course I think its more about what we prefer from the wine evaluation standpoint - not as much as what the vines themselves prefer. I believe a great deal of the dynamics in soil/vine relationships has to do with water relations. In terms of SB, the vigorous nature of the variety is controlled when grown on an arid, sandy site like our Plymouth-Carver or Riverhead soils. These soils reduce vigor as they do have less water holding capacity as well as less nutrition. This leads to greater exposure in the fruit zone and balanced vines. With Merlot, I do think the issue is more about the flavors we find in the wines themselves. Merlot grown on Haven loam soils has greater richness, a little more density and power than when the variety is grown on sandy loams like Carver and Riverhead. Not science mind you but my own observation and tasting. Taking clones into account, we have an awful lot more work to do on this subject before we fully understand our terroir - but we are getting there.
Posted by: R. Olsen-Harbich | March 24, 2011 at 12:14 PM
Once again, I seem to be the contrarian here. I've been following this application since its release in May, 2009, and I can only say it remains a disappointment. Over the years, I've grown grapes and made wine in the Finger Lakes, the Hudson Valley, and Long Island. I've also been using GIS in my daily work for the past 5 years, making maps and doing site analysis. So, what exactly did we taxpayers get for our $100,000?
The grape growing regions of New York are well known and well defined -- no new ground has been broken there. I have major concerns about the temperature and climate modeling -- it does not seem to support the ground truth that I have observed over the past 40 years. There are numerous production errors in the mapping – even if you could zoom in far enough for the results to be useful, the data projection is wrong in certain layers, resulting in incorrect output. There is no way to look at multiple factors at the same time -- you are limited to looking at a series of rather simple, predefined maps one at a time, which defeats the purpose of investing in a geospatial analysis tool.
There is no substitute for getting out and walking the land with a dedicated and experienced professional to do a proper site evaluation – no iPad is ever going to deliver you that accumulated local expertise and wisdom with your morning coffee.
Posted by: John Sperr | March 24, 2011 at 12:40 PM
John - Couple of comments. First, I think the folks at Cornell would agree that there are limitations to the mapping for now. I know they're working to improve its application and to make it more accurate.
I will also say that you are not the first to say, essentially, that science is one thing but experience on the ground is another.
Posted by: Evan Dawson | March 24, 2011 at 05:17 PM