Heavy rain forces local winemarkers to early grape picking

While much of Delmarva has dried out since last week’s heavy rain, local wineries are left with difficult decisions over an early harvest, picking grapes sooner than planned.

Tom Shelton is the owner and winemaker for Bordeleau Winery in Eden, Maryland. A veteran when it comes to wine making , Shelton says grapes don’t like a lot of water close to harvest time. So when there’s too much rainfall, like the heavy rain from last weekend, the fruit suffers.

“What happens if you get too much rain, the grapes swell, they pick up moisture it dilutes the sugars and flavors and actually we’ve had a lot of problems with grapes splitting,” Shelton explains.

Shelton explains that when the grapes split it opens up the fruit for predators, like fruit flies, bees, and deer or worse, rotting and fungal diseases. So when the grapes start to split, Shelton and his staff have no choice but to pick them, even if its earlier than wanted.

“We made the decision Monday of this week to bring it all in even though some of it is not perfect as far as the amount of ripeness. you like the sugars to be about 22 percent and some of the fruit is coming in is less than that,” says Shelton.

University of Maryland Extension Agriculture Educator, Jarrod Miller, says grapes aren’t the only crops endangered by too much rain.

“Any crops that are close to the ground right now like pumpkins if there’s any watermelons left out there or crops like lettuce or cabbage would definitely be more likely to pick up a fungus,” Miller explains.

As for the grapes, Shelton says although they may not be perfect, but the picking had to be done and he expects other wineries in the area will be doing the same thing.