Intro to Black Rot

As I’m waiting for my Chardonnay to ferment and my Pinot Noir to arrive from California, I’m reminded of the much more extreme waiting period that goes with planting your own vineyard.  While the 2009 growing season produced a decent display of leaves and vines, it was the novelty of it all that was most exciting.  For the 2010 season, I was pleasantly surprised when I saw a handful of grape bunches starting to form in late Spring.  There were about 20 in all - not enough to make wine out of, but enough to learn how they would hold up in the humid Maryland Summer.

From the books I’ve read about viticulture, I’ve learned that there are basically two primary functions that go into producing a successful vineyard:  managing the canopy through the appropriate pruning, shaping and thinning of the vines; and protecting them from pests and disease through frequent and assorted spraying.  For those of us who shop at Whole Foods, it’s natural to have a romantic notion about growing an organic, spray free vineyard.  I quickly learned that what’s realistic is much different, particularly when you’re in the unfortunate position of only being able to check on your vines once a week or so.

By midway through the Summer, about half of my aspiring grapes had shriveled up and rotted.  By the end of August, there wasn’t a single salvageable grape in the entire row of vines.  While I never intended to make a world class wine from the pound and a half of grapes I might have otherwise collected from two year old vines, I was more than a little disappointed to turn out with nothing.  It was time to reintroduce myself to the wonder of chemicals, and resign myself to waiting yet another year before I would be able to taste a mature grape of my very own.

Black Rot –  A fungus disease common in vineyards east of the Rockies, known to attack both grapes and leaves.  It blows.