Winery woes: Spring freeze, summer downpours

BY ROD WALTON World Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 12, 2007

2007 nowhere near vintage year

The grape harvest for northeastern Oklahoma's wineries has been crushed this year -- but not the good way.

An April freeze and early summer rains decimated most of the grapes intended for wine cellars, industry officials said. Wineries are not closing or going out of business, but they're scrambling for alternatives.

"Nobody can afford to sit back and run out of wine," said Gary Butler of Summerside Vineyards and Winery in Vinita and president of the Oklahoma Grape Growers and Wine Makers Association.

"Everyone's looking to see what they can do" to stay in business, he said. "We're all learning from this."

Learning the hard way, it turns out. The spring freeze killed primary buds on grape plants, while the secondary buds were hurt this summer by relentless moisture and the fungi that love rainy days.

Oklahoma State University professor Eric Stafne, one of the state's grape experts, said some wineries south of Interstate 40 were spared freeze damage. The destruction north of the highway, however, is just about total.

"Some might not have any crop at all," Stafne said. "It was quite a year."

A very bad year, in wine terminology. Oklahoma's industry has seen tremendous growth in the past decade from only about four wineries in 2000 to more than 50 this year.

Yet the state's young professional cellars are not as stocked as they could have been. Wineries are relying on back-stock and anything else they can get think of to survive.

Butler's Summerside Vineyards, for instance, may try to buy bulk juice or grapes from in and around California, and then ferment that for the Oklahoma market. Others also want to buy outside grapes and finish the winemaking themselves.

The effort might not come cheap.

"There's probably 10 people looking for grapes for every one who is looking to sell," Butler said. "It's a sellers market."

Pete Jones, who runs Nuyaka Creek Winery southeast of Beggs, is heading into his vineyard's annual Harvest Festival without any new grape vintages to bottle. His merlot plants were wiped out, but the seventh annual festival will go on without a hitch.

"I've got enough wine in the bottle from last year," Jones said. "The freeze won't hurt us this year, but next year?"

That is the question being asked at both fledgling and more established wineries all over Oklahoma. Most of the state's wine businesses are no more than seven to 10 years old.

Growers expect lean years, but the challenge is harder for new operations.

"If you've been here 10 years, you might have built up enough surplus to get through," Butler said. "Since most of us are fairly young in the industry, some are not able to build up a significant inventory."

Jones is fortunate that his Nuyaka Creek Winery -- where he is helped by his wife, Dianne -- also sports acreage devoted to wine-producing wild elderberries, apples, plums and cherries. His Baileyana variety of grape -- native to Oklahoma and also called "possum grapes" -- was the only other survivor of the freeze.

Jones hopes to fill the gap with those alternative wines through the next season.

"I still got my elderberries," he boasted. "And elderberries make a nice wine."

Oklahoma's winemakers don't release collective statistics, so the financial and yield impacts are not known. In Missouri, however, the April freeze may cost the state's winemakers millions of dollars.

Importing grapes or juice from other states will cut into Oklahoma wineries' profits. The most important thing to owners and growers, however, is letting the public know they are still in business.

"Tell them we need their help more than ever," Butler said. "The vineyards took a beating, but the wine's still good. We're still going to be here."

More information about the state's vineyards and wineries is available at www.tulsaworld.com/okwines.

Rod Walton 581-8457
rod.walton@tulsaworld.com

Associated Images:

Pete Jones looks over his Baileyana grapes at Nuyaka Creek Winery southeast of Beggs. Baileyanas, which are native to Oklahoma, were the only grapes to survive the early April freeze.