Control and Management of Sour Rot and Volatile Acidity in Vinifera Grapes Grown in Michigan
- Research Date
- 2017
- Authors
- Paolo Sabbatini, Pat Murad, Josh Vanderweide, Lemon Creek Winery
- Priorities
- Best Practices, Crop Quality, Disease Management
- Crop Categories
- Grapes
- Beverage Categories
- Wine
In an effort to explore areas of potential and desired research serving Michigan wine industry needs, MSU viticulture researchers were engaged in 2015 with members of the REAC of the MGWIC in two conference calls to ascertain their priorities and those of the industry. Three major topics were suggested and discussed: 1) climate change (Lee Lutes), 2) cold hardiness (William Harrison), and 3) sour rot (Matthew Moersch, Brian Hosmer). All three subjects are extremely important to the Michigan grape and wine industry and offer several research possibilities to the Viticulture program in the Department of Horticulture of Michigan State University. We focused on the industry s limited resources on combating the effects of Sour Rot, an ever-present and persistent problem year-after-year here in our state. We agree with winemaker and grower Matthew Moersch of Round Barn and Free Run wineries who rightly described it as "the single most limiting factor to the production of fine quality wine in Michigan". Our proposal focuses on developing new baseline knowledge of the impact of sour rot on the development of fruit quality at technological maturity. This information will guide us in the development of a new set of environmentally- and economically-sustainable cultural practices as the next key component of an effective solution. Our research was designed to specifically avoid the confounding effects of the interaction between chemical x viticultural x environment effects; often difficult to untangle with a short 2-3 year project.
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