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ASU is starting center for viticulture
Focus will be on steep-slope growth
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Published: June 12, 2008
Appalachian State University is establishing a center to study high-altitude viticulture that is expected to build on the success some mountainous European regions have found in growing grapes on steep slopes.
"It's not done in the United States. This is completely new," said Norm Oches, who was named the director of the Appalachian Center for Mountain and Steep Slope Viticulture.
The university's board of trustees approved the new center last week. The center will use $20,000 in seed money to plant a 6- to 10-acre research vineyard in Laurel Springs. Ultimately, the project is expected to be self-supporting by obtaining grants and by contracting with growers, said Jane Nicholson, a spokeswoman for ASU.
"It's not a degree-granting program. It doesn't facilitate courses. But it would provide outreach and a structure that facilitates research and grant receiving, economic-impact studies and assistance with how best to grow wine grapes at a higher elevation," she said.
It's an expansion of a program Oches began last year. He traveled to Italy, Austria and Switzerland to harvest grapes in mountainous regions to learn what they were doing and brought back research to a small library at ASU, he said.
One of the obvious challenges of growing grapes at elevations above 2,000 feet is that it is colder, Oches said. And on a 30 percent slope, it can be difficult to drive a tractor and use other equipment to maintain a vineyard.
To solve the problem, Europeans build terraced slopes, called banquettes, to plant vines, Oches said.
Also, some varieties do better than others at higher elevations. One that thrives is Seyval Blanc, a hybrid the university hopes to plant at the research vineyard.
Oches has collected a cache of steep slope-related research available to growers.
"If they are interested in topographical information or best places to plant, we have it. We are translating research from Italian," he said. "We will also be writing data and information that will be available for those in the United States for the first time who may be doing research on different varieties or different trellises."
University officials said that the center is part of an initiative to make sure the mountains play a prominent role in North Carolina's growing wine industry.
"It's not just a local thing," said Grant Holder, the director of the wine-production-management program at ASU. "Because of the gradual warming of the climate, there will be a future, a real desire to grow grapes up in the mountains, where really they should be.
"I have students who are making sparkling wine out of grapes that are grown here in the mountains," he said.
■ Sherry Youngquist can be reached in Mount Airy at 336-789-9338 or at syoungquist@wsjournal.com.
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