You may have enjoyed the cooler part of summer as opposed to the very hot last weeks of August.
But experts at Purdue say both were good for the state‘s wine grapes. Bruce Bordelon, a professor at Purdue and a viticulture expert with the school‘s Wine Grape Team, says cooler temperatures in July and early August were good for grapes because it helps add sugar content while maintaining the acidity needed for proper wine flavor. August was drier than normal, and last couple weeks were very hot across much of Indiana.
Bordelon says that type of weather near the end of wine grape season also helps, saying too much rain causes the grapes to split while still on the vine. That, he says, makes them more vulnerable to bugs and other pests. Wine grape growers in the southern part of the state gained the most from the cool summer.
Bordelon says that‘s because they have completed their harvest of early- and mid-ripening varieties of grapes. But he also says growers in north-central Indiana should have a good crop of mid-ripening grapes.
Bordelon‘s only concern is that there will not be enough remaining warm weeks for some grapes to fully ripen, especially late-ripening varieties grown in the northern part of the state.
