Travesty to Spectacular

Travesty to Spectacular

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
"Last year in the Idaho wine industry, we had a little bit of a travesty, we had the Snowmageddan. This year has just been spectacular." From a travesty to spectacular. What a difference a year makes for the Idaho wine grape growers in the Treasure Valley. Greg Algier at Houston Winery flashes back to that winter. "We had some temperature spikes that hit about 21° below zero. Just for an hour, but that's plenty of time to do pretty serious damage to fruit, trees as well as vines. We lost about 85% of all the grapes in the state. Needless to say, there weren't a lot of grapes that were produced out of the state last year. A lot of wine. So this year, as you look over towards our existing vineyard, it is beautiful. The vines this year are beautiful, the fruit is beautiful." Algier says that with a little help from mother nature the 2018 crop is on track to be a very special one. "Temperatures have been fairly moderate so we have not had extreme high heat. We have had nice heat. I think if we can keep this nice heat pattern throughout the year, we could have a very special vintage year."
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