By Paul Domoto
Fruit Specialist
Iowa State University Extension

Once you have determined your site is suitable for a vineyard, it is time to check if owning and operating a vineyard is feasible and fits your lifestyle. Factors to consider: 

Markets
The primary expansion of Iowa’s grape industry has been in cultivars (cultivated varieties) suited for wine. There are a couple of juice processors in Iowa, and some cultivars grown for wine are suitable for their needs. Fresh market table types can be grown and marketed through grocery stores, farmers’ markets or on-farm retail outlets, but this is generally a more limited market.

Before starting a vineyard, develop a marketing plan to help determine cultivars. If you plan to grow grapes for wine, visit local wineries to determine if they are interested in obtaining more grapes, what cultivars they want, what they are willing to pay for locally grown grapes, and if they would consider negotiating a contract for high quality fruit that meets their needs. There are many grape cultivars that can be grown in Iowa, but most wineries have limited fermentation space so they concentrate on making wine from a limited number of cultivars and/or styles of wine. It is important to know the cultivar needs of potential buyers.

In discussing cultivars with a winery, keep in mind how well adapted the cultivars are to your area and their cultural requirements. To provide information on the adaptability and production potential of various grape cultivars, trials are being conducted at four strategically located ISU research farms. Annual progress reports are posted on the ISU Extension viticulture site, http://viticulture.hort.iastate.edu/home.html. Alternatives for marketing wine grapes are to join a cooperative or establish your own winery. Iowa has one cooperative winery, Southern Hills Winery, www.shwinery.com.

To start your own winery, you need state and federal licenses. The State of Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division is the information source for licensing requirements for a winery. Murli Dharmadhikari (murli@iastate.edu) is the ISU Extension enologist and director of the Midwest Grape and Wine Industry Institute and can help you learn to make wine.

Establishment Costs
Depending upon the cost of the vines, vine spacing, trellis design and length of the rows, costs can range from about $5,000 to as much as $10,000 per acre to establish a vineyard if you own the land. This does not include the cost of a small tractor, a sprayer for applying herbicides, another sprayer for applying fungicides and insecticides, and other specialized equipment.

To help potential growers determine if they can afford to establish a vineyard, three downloadable, interactive workbooks have been established for the common trellis systems used in the Midwest (high trellis, Geneva double curtain, mid-wire cordon with vertical shoot position). They are available on the Ag Marketing Resource Center Web site. The workbooks allow you to customize the sheets to meet your conditions and production expectations. Keep in mind that if productivity is too high, fruit quality parameters for wine will decline. The workbooks project out to 13 years and show when you can expect to recover your investment.

Labor
Operating a vineyard requires a lot of hand labor for pruning, tying canes to the trellis, suckering, shoot thinning, shoot positioning for optimizing exposure to sunlight, cluster thinning to regulate the crop on some cultivars and harvesting. The vineyard establishment workbooks provide estimated hourly requirements to perform these tasks.

Important questions that need to be answered before planting a vineyard include: Am I going to do all the labor myself? If so, how much time per week can I devote to the vineyard? How many acres can I manage? Are there times I will need additional help? If so, when are they and how much additional help will I need? Is there an adequate source of labor available? How much time will I need to devote to employee training and supervision? How much will I need to pay to attract and retain a reliable work force?

Because vineyards are expensive to establish, it is critical your site and soil conditions are suitable for grapes, the cultivars you have selected are adapted to your conditions, adequate labor is available to carry out the work in a timely manner and you have a market for your grapes. If you try to skimp on any one of these requirements, chances for success can be greatly reduced.

Part 1 of growing grapes covered the site and soil considerations. It was in the June 2008 issue of Acreage Living.
This article is from the Nov. 2008 issue of Acreage Living.
Other articles in this month’s issue--
ENERGY STAR - Guide to Efficiency and Sustainability
Knowing Where the Money Goes Will Help Money Go Further

--30—