STURGEON BAY, Wis. — On one hand, warm winter weather makes it easier for Steve Johnson to work outside in the vineyards at Door 44 and Parallel 44.
Both are vineyards and wineries in Door and Kewaunee counties.
“This is the time of year where we need to prune the vine back so there’s the right number of bud counts on each vine,” Johnson said. “Once the growing season starts you don’t have time to structure the vines.”
On the other hand, warm weather too early in the year holds the potential to damage the crop.
“As a grape grower, you don’t want too much warmth early in the year because the vines will wake up too soon and then it will be prone to frost damage in May,” he said. “It’s contrary to the notion that warmer is better when it comes to growing. In the winemaking world, you want to prolong the winter into a later spring to get the chance of the most reduction in risk to the vines.”
If the warm trend continues, Johnson said the risk of damage goes up.
Stretches of warm weather followed by sharp cold can wreak havoc on growers in the state.
Skipp Robertson, owner of Robertson Orchards near Sturgeon Bay, said he’d like to see temperatures stay consistently cool for the remainder of the winter.
“As long as we don’t get a whole lot of warm weather where stuff starts to happen prematurely, followed by a bunch of cold weather, that’s what we’re trying to not talk about,” he said.
Robertson knows those conditions can decimate fruits like cherries. That’s what happened in Door County a little more than a decade ago.
“Trees started to blossom, or they were about to blossom, and we got hit with cold again and killed everything off before it even had a chance to produce anything,” he recalled. “Everybody who grew cherries in Door County had kind of like a summer off.”
While the weather can sometimes throw a curveball, Johnson said the latitude of the state matches up with some of the best wine growing regions in the world.
“From April through October these are the identical conditions of the world’s best wine regions. From Bordeaux to Tuscany to Oregon,” he said. “You really want temperatures that are moderate in the summer, not too cold in the winter, and have adequate sunshine and daylight. We have the same conditions as the best wine growing regions of the world.”