Our goal as vintners and grape-growers is to produce excellent-tasting wines using the best grapes available. We aim to take advantage of our unique climate, beautiful location and the richness of our farmland in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Sounds straightforward? Yes, but growing grapes on the East Coast is not for the faint of heart.
Our brethren in California benefit from long, predictable growing seasons, including warm sunny days with low humidity and cool dry nights. In fact, in most of their winegrowing areas of California, it stops raining in March and does not start again until October or November. Not a drop! This makes winter the "green season", except for irrigated crops, like vines.
The East Coast is a different matter entirely. Fungal diseases, summer rainfall, stifling humidity and widely varying temperatures all can wreak havoc on a vineyard. Each year can be very different: cooler, warmer, wetter, drier. Periodic insects such as cicadas that only show up every 17 years! In the past few years, we have faced a drought, hurricanes, a wet cool year, and a few typical years. Of course, we are faced with a much shorter growing season and we get MUCH colder weather in the wintertime than our western brethren, sometimes too cold for the classic vinifera vines, such as Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.
Grape Varieties
There are literally tens of thousands of varieties of grapes in the world. There are more varieties of grapevines in North American than any other place in the world, including the wild Fox grapes that grow all over our farm. But alas, much as the colonists discovered hundreds of years ago, the vast majority of these vines do not produce good wines.
White grapes generally require a shorter growing season than red grapes. As a consequence of this, we have had many white wines from the east that were comparable to the best from around the world. We have found red wines to be a different story. In fact, with only a small handful of exceptions over the years, we have been able to blindly identify red wines as being from the east coast. We think this come from underripe grapes that yield characteristics that we can only describe as "plasticky".
So what does one do to make a good a red wine in the east? We think it means that you must grow grapes that, more often than not, can ripen properly in our climate. Sounds easy enough, but in reality this is not such a simple problem.
Without getting into a complex dissertation on the family tree of grape vines,
there are three basic families of grapes we consider for growing wine grapes:
- Vinifera includes the classic varieties we have all heard of: merlot, cabernet sauvignon, shiraz and pinot noir, to name a few of the reds. These varieties, when they can be ripened properly, make the best possible wines. But the key to that phrase is "when they can be ripened properly".
- Hybrids are crosses between vinifera and American vines. Originally created to address disease problems with vinifera, the hybrids are generally better adapted to our eastern climate, including extreme cold and fungal diseases. While the best vinifera makes better wine than the best hybrids, the best hybrids make better wine than vinifera that is underripe or in poor condition.
- Native American grapes, as can be expected, tolerate our weather conditions best. Of course, the quality of wine made from them is often not very good. But there are exceptions to this, such as the Norton variety, which has grown in popularity in the east, in particular in Virginia.
So we are experimenting with vinifera and hybrid varieties that can both grow well and ripen in the climate of our vineyards. With the tempering effects of the Atlantic and Chesapeake Bay, our vineyards benefit from weather that is not too cold in the winter and nice and warm, with regular breezes, in the summer. We currently have eight different varieties planted, four red and four white. These varieties were chosen for their compatibility to our site and the quality of their wine. We are constantly experimenting in the vineyard, using different, and sometimes unique, trellising techniques, planting densities, and pruning styles. And boy have we learned some lessons! We hope that each of these techniques and experiments contribute to a unique outcome that will make for very interesting wines! Visit Our Wines to learn more!
Peck's Vineyard and Growing Details
To fight fungal diseases and pests (such as the same Japanese beetles that terrorize roses and other plants around us), spraying the vines cannot be avoided. We attempt to use the lowest impact chemicals possible, including a focus on chemicals acceptable to an organic regimen. While we cannot claim to be growing organically, we get as close as we can get under the conditions we face.
We have two vineyard plots currently planted on the farm.
The original plot was planted in 2003 using a variation of the TKT2 trellis system developed by Dr. Richard Smart in Australia. It is constructed using parallel lines of posts six feet apart with vines planted every twelve feet in the middle and branching out to trellis wires on both sides of the line of posts. This is a radical trellis system and we think we are possible the only ones using it in the east. Our new 4+ acre plot was just planted in the spring of 2005. This plot is trained to a vertical shoot positioned (known as VSP) trellis system. All of our vines are 10 feet apart (we still believe in wide spacing rather than the ever popular close spacing to deal with vine vigor), with the rows 10 feet apart.
We are considering adding up to 10 more acres in the future. While 16 to 17 acres will not be enough to support our requirements in the future, we feel like we must balance the time-consuming tending of vines with the time-consuming needs of a winery. We will buy the remaining grapes, preferably from growers in Maryland, but potentially from elsewhere as well.
Collectively, we have named the vineyard Peck's Vineyard, the nickname of Janet's father who lived on the farm for more than 50 years. Grape growing requires a patient farmer. It generally takes three seasons before you obtain a crop, and even then it is only 50% of the eventual total productive capacity of the vine. Generally full capacity is not reached until at least six to seven years.
What follows is a brief description of each of the varieties we have planted:
The Whites
- Vidal —Vidal is a hybrid white grape that is very popular on the east coast. In fact, due to it's tougher skin, it is often made into late harvest dessert wines and, in Canada, as icewine. Vidal is very versatile, being made in styles ranging form very dry to sweet.
- Cayuga White — This variety was developed by Cornell University to be both productive and tolerant of the weather and fungal diseases of the east with a reasonable spray program. It makes an early harvest wine with melon and pineapple notes.
- Traminette — This is another Cornell grape that is a cross between the German white grape gewürztraminer and a hybrid called seyval. Gewürztraminer is known as a wine that goes well with spicy foods. Traminette is perhaps almost unique amongst hybrids in the degree that it resembles the aroma and flavors of its parent vinifera. It makes a spicy, unique wine that is very distinctive.
The Reds
- Shiraz — Shiraz (or Syrah as it is known in France) is a vinifera popular in wines from both Australia and the Rhone Valley of France. To be honest, we planted this because we like the wines from the grape, rather than based on any growing experience. We have thus far been pleasantly surprised! The vine has grown well, and with a good spray program, we have kept disease under control. It makes a dark, fruity wine with a touch of "bacon fat" when done right (no kidding!).
- Sangiovese — The primary wine grape of the chianti region of Italy, sangiovese makes a red wine with a less fruity, more structure profile.
- St. Vincent — Our latest experiment, St. Vincent is a chance cross between pinot noir and either vidal or chamborcin (another red hybrid) that was discovered in Missouri. It is planted and vinified in various locations in Missouri, which can be an even tougher place to grow grapes than our location due to the cold winters. We are the only growers in Maryland using it. It makes a lighter style wine similar to pinot noir.
- Cabernet Franc — Cabernet franc, one of the parents of cabernet sauvignon, is somewhat more cold tolerant and ripens earlier than its famous child. It makes a dark, full bodied wine when grow to full maturity.