Eastern viticulture

Eastern Viticulture. In working with the varieties they had, eastern grape growers had developed culture practices quite different from those appropriate to California for V. vinifera varieties. These were imposed by growth characteristics unlike those of vinifera grapes, and still more by climate. 

Insects provide another difficulty. One of the axioms of entomology is that in the Northern Hemisphere, insect populations are larger and more varied in the eastern parts of a continental mass. In addition to its other problems, eastern viticulture must do constant battle against numerous voracious insect pests. The rose chafer regularly appears just in time to nip off inflorescences as they are about to flower. The Japanese beetle turns every leaf of a grapevine into a piece of lace, if allowed to. In the Tidewater sections of the lower part, nematode infestation can be so severe as to make viticulture almost impossible. 

Temperature. Eastern viticulture also is limited severely by the extreme fluctuations of winter temperature that prevail throughout, a problem virtually unknown to California viticulture, though familiar enough in the northerly extensions of the two-season area such as the Yakima Valley of Washington and adjacent parts of the Columbia River and Snake River drainage basins. It is a much more complicated problem than it appears to be at first sight. 

Post-Prohibition. The repeal of Prohibition found eastern viticulture, what there was left of it, in deep depression. Unlike California, it was not helped by the huge grape deal directed at home winemakers and it had lost much of the fresh fruit market to Thompson Seedless, Flame Tokay, and Emperor from the Central Valley, short on flavor but long on shipability. 

Riesen, R. 1992. Undesirable fermentation aromas. In Proceedings of the ASEV/ES Workshop Wine Aroma Defects. T. Henick-Kling (Ed.), pp. 1-43. American Society of Enology and Viticulture (Eastern Section), Corning, NY. 

The area of viticulture has decreased in the last years and is already <50,000ha (Table 3.1). The main reason for the reduction of the viticultural area is the final closing of small wineries when the owner retires. The wine production is mainly located in the Eastern regions of Austria, and 90% are produced in Lower Austria and Burgenland. 

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