Damn that global warming climate change. Wisconsin vineyards decimated.
September is harvest time for Wisconsin vineyards, and many are delivering much smaller yields than usual this year –or even none at all– due to historically cold and wet growing conditions, as reported by www.nbc15.com.
But I thought winters were gonna be non-existent.
Peter Botham, co-owner of Botham’s Vineyards and Winery in Barneveld, has been growing grapes for decades. However this year will be the first in 27 that the vineyard won’t be harvested.
Why is that?
“For growing grapes, it could not have been worse,” said Botham.
A historically cold winter burned the buds, and then a cool and wet spring and summer made it impossible for the few grapes that did develop to ripen.
An “historically cold winter”? How can that be? I thought the planet was heating up?
Botham’s vineyard saw so little fruit that he decided not to harvested at all.
“You’d [usually] see a lot of purple right now [but] all you see right now is green,” he said.
And it isn’t just Botham, many other Wisconsin growers are hurting too.
Shaun Lapacek, owner and winemaker at Rock N Wool Winery in Poynette, reports that more than 60% of his grapes have been lost to the cold.
“Every half month you go out there, oh my god this one’s not growing. It’s been brutal, there’s just no getting past it, it’s just been a brutal year for us,” Lapacek said.
“All the produce, all the grapes … have been lessened,” he added.
And just think, I’ll bet we’ll be hearing from the AGW crowd that this year was the warmest evah!