Growing Verona grapes organically in Pennsylvania

Farmers in Pennsylvania (and throughout the northeast) struggle to grow high quality wine making grapes. European vitis vinifera (like Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon) produce the most sought-after wines with the highest profit margins. However, it is difficult to grow those vines in Pennsylvania without heavy chemical applications, which are unhealthy for consumers and for the environment.

Wine consumers want farmers to find more earth-friendly techniques and reduce chemical use. A March 2016 study by Dr. Kathy Kelley and Jennifer Zelinskie of Penn State University found consumers are 47.9% more likely to purchase a wine that was made with “sustainbly farmed” or “naturally farmed” grapes. A 2015 Cone Communication Millennial Corporate Social Responsibility Study found 83% of U.S. survey participants responded that they would buy a “product with a social and/or environmental benefit.”

To meet this demand, winemakers have been searching for a cold-hardy, disease resistant grape that could be grown organically (or sustainably) yet also produces excellent wine. As part of the Pennsylvania Winery Association and the nine-member Pocono Wine Trail, we often discuss the issue with other Pennsylvania vineyard and winery owners. All have struggled with how to balance consumer desire for sustainability with consumer desire for bold, smooth, and balanced European-style wines.

Many hybrid varieties do thrive in Pennsylvania. However, none of the hybrid grapes we, or our fellow value added producers, have tested produce that sought-after high-end wine style. Most of the hybrid grapes that grow well in Pennsylvania produce highly acidic wines. We have found that they require chemical additives, sugar, and juice blending to become palatable. This has led the state to earn a reputation for producing inexpensive, sweet wines.

We want to change consumer perceptions. If we can grow vines with minimal environmental impact that produce European-style wines, we can take Pennsylvania's fledgling wine industry to a new level, a level that supports job creation and increased economic growth.

If successful, Pennsylvania wineries can tap into a huge tourism market. Pennsylvania tourists love wine. The 2015 Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau (PMVB) annual report showed wine-related tourism is one of the fastest growing tourism segments. The PMVB reports more than 25.5 million visitors travel to the Pocono region every year. Additionally, the Pocono Wine Trail is located within a two hour drive of New York City and Philadelphia. According to the American Community Database provided by the Circular Area Profiling System of the US Census department, there are 13,807,917 people age 25-65 living within a two hour drive of the trail.

Winemakers who we talk with in Pennsylvania and throughout the Northeast say finding quality wine grapes that can be grown using organic or sustainable methods seems to be next to impossible. Disease-resistant hybrids that do produce the desired body and tannin levels in wine lack balance.

In SARE project FNE12-754 “Cold climate grapes: Increased sustainability through improved yield and quality” the farmer noted,“The Northeast has been seeing increasing interest in growing these hybrid wine grapes, but the quality of the grapes grown has typically been on the low side due to high acid levels. The lower quality of the wine made from these grapes along with low yields has discouraged growers from expanding and stalled development of a viable wine industry.”  That SARE project focused on finding the best training method for hybrids but did not look into the type of wine produced from any specific grape variety.

The University of Minnesota has one of the top wine research programs in the country. Scientists there have created many cold-hardy hybrids, such as Marquette. Pocono Wine Trail members experimented with Marquette vines and found they pushed buds early, which was a problem with the late frost in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains. Additionally, we found the wine produced from Marquette grapes lacked balance.  Cornell University scientists have been working on this problem for years through the school's New York Sate Agricultural Experiment Station. Since 1906 they have produced more than 50 cool-weather grape varieties. Pocono Wine Trail members and Lehigh Valley Wine Trail members have experimented with some of the newer releases including Noiret and Traminette. While some have shown disease resistance and grown very well in Pennsylvania, none have produced exactly what we are looking for. Most hybrid varieties produce highly-acidic wines. They require chemical additives or blending to achieve the balance consumers desire.

Cornell came close to what we are looking for when it released the Arandell hybrid at the Viticulture 2013 conference. Farmers have been able to grow it using minimal chemicals. It is cold-hardy and resistant to both downy mildew and powdery mildew. We found it to be much less acidic than other hybrids. While Arandell produces a good red wine with a pleasant blueberry finish, it lacks smooth, full body of the European-style wines our customers desire.  Cornell researches note they have not tested Verona but they believe it sounds promising. Verona's breeder, Tom Plocher says the variety produces the smooth, full-bodied, balanced,European-style red wine we are looking for.  Plocher tested the variety in Minnesota for 12-years before releasing it to the public in 2015. His experiments showed Verona is a cold-hardy, disease-resistant grape. It is also a late pusher, which should help prevent problems that arise from Pennsylvania's late frost.

Plocher did all of his development and testing in Minnesota. While the vines performed well there, researchers at Penn State say they have not been tested in Pennsylvania or in the northeast. Plocher's distributor tells us so far no Pennsylvania vineyards have purchased Verona vines. We believe Verona may be the key to balancing the desire for sustainability with the desire for high quality wine. We found no SARE projects or University studies that examined the viability of Verona in the northeast or the potential for organic/sustainable production of Verona Vines.