The Valley's great grape experiment
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When you think of western Massachusetts produce, sweet corn, tomatoes, asparagus, cucumbers, apples and blueberries come to mind.
Grapes are not on the list.
But a crop that California has had a lock on for years is beginning to make headway in the Bay State, as fruit growers explore the possibilities of adding seedless table grapes to their inventories and a small winemaking industry slowly expands.
It goes without saying that the ideal climate for grape-growing – warm and dry, with moderate winters and adequate but not abundant rainfall – is not found in the commonwealth. But for the last several years, Cold Spring Orchard in Belchertown, a research arm of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, has been experimenting with a variety of grapes, to see which ones can best handle the area's moist climate – this summer being a good example – and cold winters.
According to Sonia Schloemann, a small-fruit specialist with UMass Extension, wineries in the eastern part of the state – particularly near the coast, with its milder winter temperatures – can grow a greater variety of grapes than those in western Massachusetts, and consequently offer a wider choice of wines: Cabernets, Merlots, Pinot Noirs and others. But there are plenty of opportunities in this region as well.
"New varieties [of wine] are being developed all the time," Schloemann notes. Case in point: Cold Spring Orchard bottled its first wine last fall, concentrating on two main types, Chardonel and Frontenac.
And after experimenting with about 10 types of table grapes in the past decade, the orchard is now working with some local farmers to grow three varieties. Cold Spring is also taking part in a national study involving other types of table grapes.
Farmers who sell their fruit directly to the public should find plenty of customers for seedless grapes, says Schloemann, who oversees the research at the Cold Spring Orchard vineyards. "Interest in winemaking is really taking off in the state. And I think there's tremendous customer interest in table grapes." She says that last fall at the orchard, which sells its produce to the public to aid its research efforts, customers sometimes lined up in advance to buy grapes on the days they were harvested.
"If they taste sweet and look good, they're marketable," Schloemann says with a laugh. Fresh-made grape juice the orchard sold last fall was also a big hit, she says.
Tom Clark and his son, Ben, of Clarkdale Fruit Farm in Deerfield are among the farmers who are game to give grapes a try. The Clarks, who grow apples, peaches and plums on most of their acreage, are part of a small group of local growers raising three varieties of seedless table grapes: Mars, Marquis and Vanessa, which were initially developed in Arkansas, New York and southern Ontario, respectively. The Clarks, with federal grant money made available through the Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Station in Amherst, set up two types of trellises – to see which would spur greater growth – and with Schloemann's help planted the vines for the grapes in the spring of 2007.
Some are already bearing fruit, some of which they plan to harvest in September. "It's an experiment, but it's one that seemed well worth trying," says Tom Clark. "We see this as a real good possibility for a value-added product."
Clark is encouraged by his sales in the last few years of traditional Concord grapes, which his grandfather planted on the property in the early 1900s. Those grapes, which have seeds and fairly tough skins, were popular at the time for canning and making juice, he says, but became less of a draw over ensuing decades; Clark stopped cultivating the fruit for several years at one point but has taken to harvesting them again. Customers "really enjoy them," he says. "They've been very popular."
And so, he figures, seedless grapes should be an even bigger draw: "The only other place you can get them is the supermarket, and they all come from California or South and Central America."
Cultivating the fruit requires a fair amount of work. The vines need to be tied to the trellises to support their growth, and the foliage, which grows fast, must be cut back regularly to expose the fruit to the sun and provide good drainage. Since the grapes are harvested at the same time as many of the Clarks' apple varieties, it also means more work at that busy time.
But he and Schloemann note that grapes face fewer threats from insects than, for instance, apples do, and require much less treatment with fungicides and pesticides. "They're a hardy crop," says Tom Clark. "We're happy with what we've seen so far. And vineyards – well, they just look so nice, don't they?"
Growing grapes for winemaking is a different story, Schloemann says. "Making wine requires a whole different level of investment, in equipment, in time and resources, so not every grower wants to get involved with that," she says.
But those who do, she adds, can be part of a growing trend that has seen wineries in the state expand from 12 in 1994 to close to 30 today, according to the state Department of Agricultural Resources. In addition, there are a number of others in the planning or beginning stages. Sales generated from Massachusetts wineries totaled $6.53 million in 2004 and are expected to top $10 million by 2010, the department says.
Schloemann notes that there are already a few small wineries in this area, such as the Chester Hill Winery in Chester, which specializes in blueberry wine, and another that opened in Hatfield last year, the Pioneer Valley Winery, which offers a number of fruit-flavored wines as well as a dry white wine. "We think there's a real good future for small-scale wineries and grape growers across the state," she says.
Kip Kumler, who for 10 years has run Turtle Creek Winery in Lincoln, is also head of the Massachusetts Farm Wineries and Growers Association, a group that formed last year to advocate for the small but growing industry, which includes hard cider makers. The association, Kumler says, is trying to get the state Legislature to rescind a law that prohibits the sale of wine at farmers markets. He points out that Massachusetts leads the nation in average direct sales from farms to customers – almost $25,000 per farm – and that allowing small wineries to sell at farmers markets would increase that total.
"[Farmers markets] say they want us there because they feel it would increase customer traffic," Kumler says. Winemaking may be a minor activity in Massachusetts in an economic sense, but Kumler considers it a burgeoning field. He says there are also many people – no one has a firm number – who make wine for their own enjoyment in their homes and can be potential customers for grape growers in the state.
To become more of a resource for winemakers, aspiring or established, Cold Spring Orchard has acquired winemaking equipment and last fall did its first bottling from its own vineyards; it will bottle more this year. At the Belchertown facility, Schloemann recently walked some visitors through the process, which includes crushing and destemming the grapes, fermenting them, separating the juice from the skins, and then letting the wine age.
"We felt it was important we learn about this process so that we can help others who are looking for advice and information," says Schloemann. And, she adds with a laugh, the orchard's wine may eventually be made available for sale – "when we develop our technique a little more."
Steve Pfarrer can be reached at spfarrer@gazettenet.com.
