CLEVELAND — Unusually cold weather at the beginning of this year destroyed much of the grape harvest across the Grand River Valley. 

What You Need To Know

  • Vineyards across the Grand River Valley region lost 80% of this year's grape harvest

  • A spring frost and extended below-freezing temperatures in January killed a majority of plants

  • Late-blooming varieties, like Vidal used to make ice wine, weren't as affected since they were still dormant at the time

Larry Laurello, the owner of Laurello Vineyards, pointed out the crushing blow dealt to his crop. 

“We had to come up and bring up new plants because it literally killed the plant down to the graft,” he said.

Rows of grape plants at his vineyard were killed off. 

Shane Horstmann, cellar operator and winemaker for Laurello, said the exact cause is unknown. 

“Listening to the extension office from Ohio State, they’re still kind of debating,” he said. “Was it the long cold stretch that we had in January where we were kind of floating in the low teens, or was it the late spring frost that we had?”

Horstmann said the likely answer is a combination of both. 

Now the Laurello Vineyards team is working on training new plants to grow in the direction and shape they want. But, Laurello said it will take about three years for the vines to be back to the level they were before they died off. 

It’s a problem affecting vineyards across the Grand River Valley.

“Typically, you expect to have in low-lying areas, every four or five years, a frost condition,” Laurello said. “In the upper areas, some of the vineyards on the other side of the river haven’t seen frost in 40 years. So, the fact that they lost 80% of their crop this year was a huge phenomenon for northeast Ohio.”

Because of the loss across the board, there isn’t the possible to share surplus fruit between vineyards. 

“The guy that has more grapes would be able to give it to the guy that doesn’t have as much,” Laurello said. “Well, this year, nobody has any. So, next year is gonna be a year where we all suffer for inventory because we just don’t have the crop to share.”

But this isn’t something you’ll notice on the winery’s shelves any time soon. 

“All of us typically have a year-and-a-half to two years’ worth of inventory in the cellar, so we won’t see the damage from lack of inventory until sometime middle to the end of next year,” Laurello said. 

At which point, Kimberly Laurello, co-owner and winemaker for Laurello Vineyards, said they might have to get creative and seek grapes from other similar regions to keep the shelves stocked. 

“Mother Nature can be very kind or she can be a real, you know, not so nice lady,” she said. 

They're not letting that stop them from sharing their gift for winemaking.