This story is made possible by the Northern Michigan Journalism Collaborative, a project led by Bridge Michigan and Interlochen Public Radio, and funded by Press Forward Northern Michigan.
CHARLEVOIX — When Derrick Vogel and Izabela Babinska purchased their property in Charlevoix that would become Folklor Wine and Cider, they anticipated solely planting hybrid grapes.
But soon after, they realized planting a diverse range of grapes would be advantageous in an unpredictable climate.
“ Our climate is a challenge in general,” Vogel said. “We absolutely love growing fruit here but it's not California's climate.”
With increasingly unpredictable seasons and uncertain lengths of winter, many of Michigan’s nearly 300 vineyards are looking for new ways to adapt to a changing climate. They’re planting hybrid grapes that can withstand colder temperatures, irrigating their vines rather than relying on natural rainfall and turning to new strategies to ensure healthy soil.
It’s a gamble — some connoisseurs say hybrids make an inferior wine — but it’s a gamble some winemakers say they have to take to keep the $9 billion industry thriving.
In some areas of Michigan, traditional grapes “ will really struggle and, in a lot of years, not even make fruit,” Vogel said. “ I saw some pretty cold temps on the Petoskey Weather Station this year, like the kind of temps that will do pretty serious damage to your yields.”
Slowly catching on
Hybrid grapes are made by breeding different vines together, resulting in new varieties more resistant to cold weather and disease.
About 5% of grapevines worldwide are hybrids. Most vineyards use vitis vinifera grapes, longstanding varietals that have been around for centuries. Riesling, for example, a vitis vinifera grape that’s grown in Michigan, is a nearly 600 year-old grape with roots in Germany.
Many winemakers say the old grapes yield superior wine than their newer hybrid counterparts.
Vogel said Folklor plants about 55% vitis vinifera and 45% hybrid grapes.
“We wanted to plant something that we knew we weren't going to have to deal with cold damage or frost damage,” said Vogel.
Genetic diversity on the vineyard is helping Folklor weather challenges like fluctuating temperatures. If one grape isn’t yielding as much fruit because of an unusually cold winter or drastic temperature changes in the summer, another will give up more, helping them through those lower yields.
“ We're always gonna have something fermentable, regardless of what happens with the weather,” said Vogel.
Vogel said that, while hybrid grapes have not historically made quality wine, that’s changing as grape growers and winemakers gain more experience working with the younger hybrid varieties.
Esmaeil Nasrollahiazar, a viticulture extension educator at Michigan State University, said measuring the differences in quality between hybrid grapes and vitis vinifera is a controversial topic.
“Quality is based on what you are doing in growing season and how you treat your wine and how you take care of it to reach, for example, a certain level of the sugar and a certain level of acid,” he said.
Alaina Leech, co-owner of Lake District Wine Co. in Traverse City, said hybrid grapes don’t command the name-brand recognition that vitis vinifera grapes do, but producers in northern Michigan are making quality wine with both.
“I've had absolutely stunning wines that are made from vitis vinifera from our local region, as well as many, many hybrid varieties that are also delicious grown right here,” said Leech.
‘It depends’
The recent floods resulting from heavy rain in combination with spring snowmelt have left some farmers in northern Michigan with flooded fields. Vogel’s property, which sits up on a hill, was largely spared from the worst of the recent April flooding.
But his neighbors just down the hill weren’t so lucky. Their field had flooded, which Vogel said might delay their corn planting.
In northwest Michigan, microclimates across the region mean vineyards just 50 miles apart deal with different weather conditions and temperatures.
“ East Grand Traverse Bay has an incredible moderating effect on our temperature extremes,” said Vogel.
But up the road in Petoskey, most vineyards are hybrids to help withstand the colder temperatures. The Petoskey wine region is about 90% hybrid grape varietals, said Vogel, who previously worked on vineyards in the Petoskey area.
After the 2014 polar vortex, some vineyards in Michigan opted to plant more hybrid grapes to weather colder temperatures, said Vogel. Grapes are perennials — they’re planted once and grow year after year — meaning the vines have to survive winters to be fruitful in the spring.
In Charlevoix, temperatures dropped to as low as -6 degrees in January and down to -4 degrees in February this winter, according to National Weather Service data. On the Old Mission Peninsula, the lowest recorded temperature was -3 in January and 8 in February, temperatures that pale in comparison to just up the road in Petoskey, where temperatures were as low as -14 in February.
Midwinter warm spells, followed by a sharp drop in temperature, can be especially damaging to vineyards.
This year, an above-average snowfall hit northern Michigan. Charlevoix saw 130 inches of snow this year, its highest total since the 2008-09 season, according to National Weather Service data.
Decisions on planting hybrid or vitis vinifera are made on a site-specific basis.
“The lake is protecting vinifera, that's why we can plant a vinifera here,” said Nasrollahiazar, the MSU researcher. “If you don't have lake effect, most likely your vinifera won't survive. So it depends on the proximity to bodies of water and the site topography.”
Comparing vitis vinifera and hybrids is akin to the tortoise and the hare, Nasrollahiazar said. Vitis vinifera is the slow-moving tortoise. It adapts slowly and gradually to the changing seasons, he said. Hybrids react faster to changing weather, which comes with its potential downsides.
“ Although they are more hardy, they can de-acclimate and grow faster. So they are in risk of frost damage,” said Nasrollahiazar. After buds form on the vines, “ they are very susceptible to any temperature below freezing,” he added.
Preparing for winter is a year-round job.
“Some growers are doing a better job and they are preparing for winter even in August,” said Nasrollahiazar.
‘The vines get stressed’
Some vineyards moved away from hybrids in recent years because of milder winters, said Vogel.
One of the biggest benefits from hybrids are disease resistance. Vogel said that some hybrid cultivars are resistant to diseases like downy mildew, which can damage vineyards in wet and humid conditions.
Climate change is causing weather patterns to be more intense from season to season, said Dave Bos, who runs Bos Wines. He recalled an unusually wet July 2021 that was followed by intense heat.
“In sandy, low limestone soils, when they dry out, the vines get stressed,” Bos said. “So, even though ‘21 was the wettest year on record, the season itself was very warm. And so that's what climate change is doing. It's just turning the volume up on everything.”
Two decades ago, few vineyards in northern Michigan were irrigating their vineyards, said Bos. Vineyards employed dry farming practices, which means crops only receive water from natural rainfall. But, with warmer summers and inconsistent rainfall, more grape growers are choosing to irrigate vineyards.
“Here you can irrigate and help the plant get through those hotter times,” Bos said. “So with climate change, I think we can position ourselves to use technology and use things that we already have, but also realize what you did 20 years ago may not be as effective.”
A part of vineyard management is learning to adapt as new information becomes available, said Bos, who said some information he learned in soil classes in 2005 is now obsolete.
“The hard thing for a lot of people right now is believing there's things we don't know about science and plants and soil,” he said.
As the summers grow warmer, Bos said grape growers are having to look for signs of heat stress in their vineyards, a growing concern that hasn’t historically been an issue in northern Michigan vineyards.
“And that's the reality of climate change is can we adapt fast enough?” said Bos.
