Dry days shrink state grape crop

1,100-ton harvest forecast is 8% drop from last year

Joe Bishop, who raises grapes on 16 acres near Lowell, says the summer of 2012 was a challenge.
Joe Bishop, who raises grapes on 16 acres near Lowell, says the summer of 2012 was a challenge.

— Drought and excessive heat combined this summer to shrink the Arkansas grape crop.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture forecasts that 1,100 tons of grapes will be harvested in the state this year, down 8 percent from the 1,200 tons a year ago and just over half the 2,100 tons produced in 2010.

That’s still better than the freeze-damaged 2007 crop that yielded only 500 tons. On the positive side, the dry conditions limited disease and wineries are mostly pleased with the grapes they produced, said Andy Allen, program chairman for viticulture at Arkansas Tech University’s Ozark campus.

“The quality of the fruit for the most part has been good,” Allen said.

Arkansas and, for that matter, most other grapeproducing states are bit players in the big picture of U.S. production. California alone produces 90 percent of all U.S grapes, according to USDA statistics, followed by Washington at 6 percent and New York at 2 percent.

In Northwest Arkansas, grape production has fallen sharply since a Welch’s juice plant was closed in 1978.

Joe Bishop of Lowell is among those who have stuck with the grape business, but he concedes that the summer of 2012 was a challenge.

“No spring, straight into summer,” he said. “It did not downgrade the quality of the crop but we had to irrigate a lot.” He started irrigating in May, earlier than he ever had.

Bishop raises mostly wine grapes — as is typical for most Arkansas grape-growing operations — but also grows some concord grapes for juice.

His market is most of the 10 wineries in Arkansas, plus some in Oklahoma and Missouri. “I’m a hundred miles from most of the wineries,” he said.

Missouri’s grape market is much larger than the size of Arkansas’ market, but it still is not among the major grapegrowing states.

Elena Garcia, extension specialist for fruit and nut production at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, said only about 20 producers operate on a commercial scale in Arkansas, and nearly all their production goes to wineries.

“It’s a very small industry,” she said. Some grow for their own wine production, while others sell theirs to Missouri wineries, and some grow table grapes to sell at farmers’ markets, she said.

“My concern is that this drought is going to affect the vines for the long-term, this year and last year,” Garcia said. “Our vines were very, very stressed.”

Doug Hausler, owner of Keel’s Creek Winery in Eureka Springs, said his crop started coming in about a month and a half earlier than normal because of the unusually warm weather. With the hot, dry weather, he said, disease and mildew were significantly lower than normal.

“So that’s the good news. But the bad news is, it was dry,” he said.

Tonnage was fair but not spectacular, Hausler said. When the temperature hits 95 and above, he said, the grape plant basically shuts down, “just sits there.”

And he was still dealing with damage caused by the 2007 freeze. He harvested about five tons this year.

“This is supposed to be a retirement effort by us,” he said, adding that he is spending more time in the winery this year and less in the vineyard. He’s supplementing his own production by purchasing grapes from Bishop’s operation in Lowell, and from another grower in Hindsville.

Allen said most of the Arkansas grape market operates on a handshake and a verbal agreement. In Missouri, grape growers have access to a much larger market, with 115 wineries, and contracts are more common between growers and buyers, he said.

Many Northwest Arkansas growers sell their crops to Missouri wineries, Allen said.

In the Arkansas River valley in the western part of the state, Altus claims the title of Wine Capital of Arkansas, carrying on the wine-making traditions of German-Swiss immigrants as well as Italians. The city stages an annual Grape Fest featuring a grape stomp.

“Grapes and wine are our thing around here. It’s part of our environment,” Altus Mayor Larry Stacy said.

Production was down this year due to drought, he said, and harvest came three weeks earlier than normal, but the sugar content was up.

“The wine grapes are the ones that have the biggest economic impact on our area,” Stacy said, noting the presence of Post Familie Vineyards, Weiderkehr Wine Cellars, Chateau aux Arc and Mount Bethel Winery.

“They’re family-owned, family-run, just passed down through the families,” he said.

Business, Pages 69 on 09/23/2012

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