Issue date: 4/12/07 Section: Features

Media Credit: AP Photo

AUGUSTA, Mo. (AP) - Tony Kooyumjian has sensors in his vineyards that sound alarms in his house when temperatures fall to just above freezing during the growing season.

He relies on geography to protect his grapes, planting high on the rolling hills of Augusta, Mo., about 45 miles outside of St. Louis, and using trellises 6 feet above the ground to protect the crop from frost. He said farmers in Missouri Wine Country have also burned hay or lit smudgepots in the fields to keep frost at bay.

They've hired helicopters and giant fans to try and circulate warmer air by the grapes. Some farmers even spray their vines with water, looking to insulate buds inside an ice cocoon.

Not this year.

"All you can do is pray at this point," Kooyumjian said Thursday.

A prolonged, below-freezing dip in temperatures could have a profound effect on the Midwestern grape crop. The number of wineries has doubled in Missouri in the past decade. In Illinois, it has grown more than fivefold during that time.

Each has about 1,200 acres statewide devoted to growing grapes and roughly 70 wineries.

So far, vineyard operators say they haven't seen damage from a cold spell. Still, they expect an anxious time through Saturday night, playing a wait-and-see game with the temperatures.

In southern Illinois' Alto Pass community, Alto Vineyards marketing chief Elissa Hopkins-Renzaglia said a drawn-out stretch with temperatures below freezing - largely in the mid-20s - "potentially could be devastating" to the business' 10 acres of vineyards.

Young shoots already sprouting from grape vines, courtesy of the early warmth this year, could succumb to the freeze, she said.

A secondary bud could follow but won't be as fruitful, meaning lower yields.

"We are a little concerned," Hopkins-Renzaglia said.

Any damage could produce a ripple effect: Alto Vineyards' winemaking includes using grapes it grows and those produced elsewhere in the region, meaning the business may have to scramble to get grapes elsewhere.

"As long as I've been here, about five years, I can't recall a time we've had to worry about the cold weather - until now," Hopkins-Renzaglia said. "I don't know if we're getting as adequate sleep as we could be."

In coming days, the weather isn't likely to ease her worries.

Temperatures throughout much of southern Illinois and eastern Missouri got to about freezing Wednesday night and into Thursday morning.

Continued...

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