06.04.2015  
 

ASEV-ES to Hold 40th Meeting

Eastern section of wine and grape group will convene in Dunkirk, N.Y.

 
by Linda Jones McKee
 
“presque
 
Presque Isle Wine Cellars is one of the stops on the pre-conference tour associated with the annual meeting of ASEV-ES in July.
Dunkirk, N.Y.—After a successful joint meeting of the American Society for Enology and Viticulture and the ASEV’s Eastern Section in Austin, Texas, last summer, the two organizations will resume their separate meetings in 2015. The ASEV national conference will take place June 15-18 in Portland, Ore.; the Eastern Section meeting will be held in Dunkirk from July 23 through the 25th. The ASEV-ES event will be followed by the Second International Workshop on Vineyard Mechanization and Grape and Wine Quality at the State University of New York at Fredonia from July 26 through the 29th.

Pre-conference winery tour
According to Eastern Section administrator Dr. Renee Threlfall, research specialist for the Institute of Food Science and Engineering at the University of Arkansas, the ASEV-ES meeting will begin with its traditional daylong pre-conference tour of local wineries. Included on this year’s tour are wineries in both Pennsylvania and New York. On July 23, the first stop will be South Shore Wine Co. in North East, Pa. Originally incorporated in 1865, South Shore is now owned by Mazza Vineyards, which has a tasting room located in South Shore’s stone wine cellar. Founded in 1972 by Joseph Mazza and his two sons, Frank and Robert, Mazza Vineyards currently produces 30,000 cases and also owns Mazza Chautauqua Cellars, New York’s first combination winery, distillery and brewery in Westfield, N.Y.

The second winery, Presque Isle Wine Cellars, also in North East, Pa., was one of the first two wineries established in Pennsylvania after the passage of the Limited Winery Act in 1968. The legislation, which allowed farm wineries to open in the state, was guided through the Pennsylvania legislature by Presque Isle’s owner, Doug Moorhead. Lunch will be served at Johnson Estate Winery in Westfield, N.Y. Frederick S. Johnson opened the winery in 1961 to maximize the return from the Concord vineyards his father had left him and to serve as a buffer in case the market for fresh grapes declined. Johnson Estate now has 110 acres of grapes and produces 40,000 cases per year. The final stop will be a tour of the vineyards at the Cornell Lake Erie Research and Extension Laboratory in Portland, N.Y., followed by a wine tasting at 21 Brix Winery located nearby. 21 Brix was opened in 2011 by Mike and Marion Jordan, whose son Kris Kane is the winemaker, both for 21 Brix and for Presque Isle Wine Cellars.

Conference sessions
The ASEV-ES conference July 24 and 25 will feature technical and research presentations covering a range of vineyard and winemaking topics. For example, Michela Centinari of Pennsylvania State University will speak about the “Impact of Crop-regulating Practices on Yield, Fruit Composition and Wine Quality of Chancellor Grapevines.” Tony Wolf from Virginia Tech will discuss “Root Restriction as a Tool to Achieve More Balanced Vine Growth and Enhanced Fruit Composition,” and Andrew Reynolds of Brock University will talk about the “Impact of Crop Level and Harvest Date on Aroma Compounds of Four Vitis vinifera Wine Grape Cultivars in Ontario, Canada.” In addition, other researchers as well as enology and viticulture students will give papers and poster sessions on a wide range of subjects.

On Saturday morning, Dr. Wayne Wilcox, professor of plant pathology at Cornell University and this year’s recipient of the ASEV-ES Outstanding Achievement Award, will discuss “Mold & Mildews, Spots & Rots: Grape Pathology in the East.” A native of northern California, Wilcox received his bachelor’s degree in horticulture and master’s and doctoral degrees in plant pathology from the University of California, Davis. He has led the grape pathology program at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, N.Y., for the past 21 years and has focused on the applied biology and practical, integrated management of the major fungal diseases of grapes, utilizing both viticultural and fungicidal tools.

As at past ASEV-ES meetings, Friday evening’s Grazing Dinner will feature the annual Oenolympics, in which teams of students from various viticulture and enology programs across the country compete in a range of wine-related tasks. The 40th anniversary Eastern Section conference will end June 26 with a sparkling wine reception and the ASEV-ES banquet.

Second International Workshop on Vineyard Mechanization and Grape and Wine Quality
The Second International Workshop on Vineyard Mechanization and Grape and Wine Quality will be held July 26 to 29 in Fredonia, N.Y. Sponsored by the International Society for Horticulture Science in conjunction with the ASEV-ES, the workshop is being co-organized by Dr. Terry Bates, research scientist and director of the Cornell Lake Erie Research Center, and Dr. Nick Dokoozlian, vice president for viticulture, chemistry and enology at E. & J. Gallo Winery in Modesto, Calif.

International experts will discuss the latest research on grapevine mechanization, precision viticulture and the use of mechanization and technology to improve grape and wine quality. Topics will include engineering advancements, mechanized tools for vineyard operations, the application or remote and proximal sensing technologies for monitoring vine performance, variable rate and zonal vineyard management for improving vineyard productivity and the economic impact of mechanized systems on fruit yield and quality.

The workshop will begin July 26 with a symposium named in honor of the late Dr. Nelson Shaulis, viticulture professor at Cornell University whose major contributions to viticulture included the creation of the Geneva Double Curtain (GDC) grapevine training system and the development of the mechanical grape harvester. Speakers at the Shaulis symposium will include Dr. Stefano Poni, University of Piacenza, Italy, and Dr. Rob Bramley of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization in Adelaide, Australia.

The first Vineyard Mechanization Workshop was held in Italy in 2012. Scientists and grapegrowers from more than 20 countries are expected to attend this year’s event.

Registration and housing
Information about the ASEV-ES conference and registration forms are available on the website asev-es.org. Registration can be done online or by mailing or faxing the completed registration form. The conference hotel is the Clarion Hotel Marina and Conference Center, 30 Lake Shore Drive East, Dunkirk, N.Y. In order to get the conference hotel room rate ($129 per night) for the ASEV-ES block, contact the hotel at (716) 366-8350 or (800) 525-8350 by June 22. The hotel’s website is clariondunkirk.com.

For more information about the Second International Workshop on Vineyard Mechanization and Grape and Wine Quality, visit events.cals.cornell.edu/ishs.

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