Illinois Grape Crop Growing Each Year, Harvest Getting Sweeter

Like any fruit crop, or crop in general, the Illinois grape crop is largely dependent on the weather and this year, Mother Nature was not particularly kind to the vineyards.

The best weather for grape harvest is hot and dry, to "draw the sugar", said local winemaker and vineyard owner Annet Lofton.

The hotter and drier the weather, the more sweet the grapes will become and the less work will be required of winemakers. "In perfect conditions, with a good harvest, you would simply extract your juice, add some yeast and let nature do the rest," Lofton said. This year, with the weather turning wet and cooler by mid-August, expect the wineries to have to add sugar to get the grapes started in the fermenting process.

And, grape harvest lasts form nearly two months, depending on the variety of grapes being grown, so the unusually cool temperatures in late August may impact everything from the yield to the quality of the grapes.

"The weather hit us with some late season disease too," she said. That means that growers had to harvest some crops early to prevent loss.

Illinois vineyards are generally small and hand-tended because of their size, so growers were able to notice the subtle changes in the grapes very early on. "When the weather is bad, you can have disease sprout up basically over night," she said.

Since the growers have babied these plants since before the first blooms last spring, they notice quickly when something changes in the vineyard.

Most Illinois growers produce cross-bred grape varieties hybrid from French grapes and native American grapes. Here is a break-down of the six most popular grapes grown in Illinois and their histories as supplied by the Illinois Grape Growers and Vintners Association. All except the Norton are hybrid French and American varieties. The Norton is an American grape.

Chambourcin
Chambourcin is a late-ripening, dark blue-black grape that can produce a highly-rated red wine with a reasonably full, slightly herbaceous flavor ad aroma. Wines from this grape are higher in tannins (which gives wine a "dry" quality) than other French-American hybrids. Chambourcin grapes are usually used to produce claret or Bordeaux-style wines, but also can be used to make rose.

Chambourcin are the premier grape raised in Illinois, Lofton said, because the vine is very disease resistant and the grape is very versatile for winemakers, making it good for the wineries and the growers.

Seyval
Seyval is one of the most widely planted grapes east of the Rocky Mountains. As optimal maturity, its vines have attractive aromas of grass, hay and melon. It's often fermented or aged in oak to enhance the grape's neutral flavors and produce high-quality wine. Seyval produces food-friendly white wines that are often considered as alternatives to Chardonnay.

Vignoles
Vignoles produce excellent white wines of many different styles. It's favored for dessert wines because of its ability to develop high sugar content while retaining high acidity. It is also made into dry and semi-sweet wines.

Chardonel
Chardonel was developed in the mid-1950s at Cornell University by crossing Chardonnay and Seyval vines to produce high-quality white wines with greater cold-hardiness than Chardonnay. Full-bodied, crisp and dry, Chardonel grapes produce European-style wines exhibiting toasty oak, ripe apple and pear flavors.

Vidal Blanc
Vidal Blanc is becoming increasingly popular for its fresh and fruity characteristics. Similar in style to Sauvignon Blanc and Muscadet grapes, it has high sugar and acid levels and can be vinified in a variety of styles from dry white wines to late-harvest sweet dessert wines to ice wines similar to German Eiswein.

Norton
Norton grapes produce a dark, inky red wine with flavors of plums and cherries. first developed in 1835 by a doctor in Virginia named Daniel Norton, it is sometimes also called Cynthiana, and is widely planted in the Midwest.

Other varieties, like Concord, the grape most people associate with grape jelly, are also growing in popularity because they adapt to the Illinois climate and are very disease resistant. When Illinois winemakers choose to use a grape that cannot be grown in Illinois, the grapes are harvested and crushed into juice where they are grown and the juice is imported to make Illinois wine.