2014 Eastern Winery Exposition: Highlight for Me

One of the highlights of the Eastern Winery Exposition for me was meeting Lucie Morton. I've read the books that Lucie has written, one called Winegrowing in Eastern America as well as the 1979, English translation and adaptation of Pierre Galet's book, A Practical Ampelography, Grapevine Identification. I didn't go to hear her talk about Grape-Based Challenges to a Healthy Wine Industry in the Mid-Atlantic because I was in the other session, but my husband went and he thought it was one of the talks with the most substantive information.
The next best thing to listening to Lucie talk is probably looking at the slide-deck that is available on line called "Bordeaux Blends" Blending Starts in the Vineyard. Some of the bullets that are in this slide as well as in Lucie's talk were:

• Plant vines with 39-48 inches between vines
• Vines should be cane pruned and vertical shoot position (VSP) trained
• Stress is not a good thing for young vines
• Clones matter

The online slide-deck includes many pictures as well as information on the performance of various clones of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. You can be sure that we will consult this link when it comes time to order our red varieties.