Surry Business

“Grape growers and winemakers in the Yadkin Valley are cutting losses and counting blessings after a season of extreme weather produced smaller crops, but flavorful grapes,” reports Lisa Boone-Wood in the Sept. 26 edition of the Winston-Salem Journal.

“Warm weather in March followed by a freeze on Easter weekend had many growers wondering whether the grape crop would be successful, said Terry Garwood, an agricultural extension agent for the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service in Surry County,” Boone-Wood writes, “but the drought brought hot, dry weather that concentrated sugars in the grapes.”

Harvesting began earlier than originally expected because heat and drought made grapes ripen sooner.

At Shelton Vineyards in Dobson, harvest is about three weeks ahead of schedule, said George Denka, the company’s president.

Ben Webb, the general manager and winemaker at Old North State Winery in Mount Airy, said that the season has been good, although some of the white grapes, such as chardonnay, were lost early on, “but we have plenty of whites that came in wonderful.”

“The consumer needs to remember 2007 as a great year in the vineyard because they will be able to get some really good values on wines,” Kim Myers, the president of the N.C. Winegrowers Association, told Boone-Wood.