Source: IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY submitted to
ENHANCING REGIONAL GRAPE AND WINE PRODUCTION AND QUALITY
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
ACTIVE
Funding Source
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1031515
Grant No.
2023-51181-41189
Cumulative Award Amt.
$49,058.00
Proposal No.
2023-05642
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Sep 1, 2023
Project End Date
Aug 31, 2025
Grant Year
2023
Program Code
[SCRI]- Specialty Crop Research Initiative
Project Director
Watrelot, A. A.
Recipient Organization
IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY
2229 Lincoln Way
AMES,IA 50011
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
The US grape and wine market is represented by California with 85 % of wine production, but the Midwest /Northern states grape and wine economies are constantly growing. In 2018, New York State was the third largest wine producing state, Oregon the fourth, and Texas the fifth, with the three states collectively representing about 5.6% of US wine production (https://wineamerica.org/policy/by-the-numbers). Likewise, grape and wine production in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Vermont, and other states is increasing.While California is the leading US grape and wine producing state, extreme weather events associated with climate change is challenging the viability of the current and future wine industry. This includes increased risk of wildfires, drought, limited water quality, and invasive pests combined with a lack of irrigation water. Serious concerns about the sustainability and resiliency of the California grape and wine industry are evident as grape and wine production begins shifting to states where drought and lack of water are not a concern for growing high quality grapes, as already observed by some famous wineries such as Jackson Family Wines (CA) expanding to Walla Walla Valley (WA), Ste Michelle Wine Estates (WA) acquiring Oregon A to Z Wineworks (OR), Foley Family Wines (CA) acquiring Huntington Hill Vineyard (OR).Different macro-climates and corresponding challenges exist across the "lesser known" grape and wine production regions. In US Midwest and Northern states, winter is the most challenging time of the year for grape growers. Temperatures can drop down to -40°C in some areas, limiting the production of Vitis vinifera, the most common grapevine species for wine production. Therefore, new cultivars bred by the University of Minnesota and Cornell University are grown for climate-adapted wine production in the region. These regionally adapted grape cultivars have unique physiology and biology that allow good field performance under extreme cold winter temperatures and are less susceptible to diseases, but have fruit chemistry that make wine production challenging. The average wine consumer is familiar with wines that have different flavor profiles, mouthfeel, and acidity than the newly bred cultivars; these "familiar wines" are generally produced from Vitis vinifera grown in larger production states (e.g., CA and WA) in warmer climates. If producers in the majority of the US's wine producing states are going to be successful in producing and marketing wines, they will have to overcome the challenge of managing these wines, the wine quality, and either adjusting wines to meet consumer expectations or to help educate consumers about the different wine styles that result from these sustainable and regionally adapted cultivars.Overall, the greatest challenge currently facing US wine producers, regardless of company size or location, is climate change and its impact on grape production, resiliency, wine quality and slowing wine sales. Even though the US ranks first in wine consumption worldwide, the impact of extreme climates on wine quality needs better approaches to strengthen the US grape and wine industry. To remain competitive, growers and winemakers must contend with the constraints imposed by climate, suitable land for production, grapevine biology, cost of production, marketing the product, and meeting the complex needs of the consumer. More communication between grape breeding programs, grape growers, and winemakers as well as outreach to consumers should be developed to enhance the US grape and wine industry.The main goal of this research and extension planning project is to develop stakeholder focus groups and in-depth follow-up meetings to understand and document the values, needs, and concerns of stakeholders that aim to produce high quality regional grapes and wines in non-arid climates. The analysis of the focus group data will be used to evaluate strategies to improve regional production of niche cultivars and wine quality and therefore the overall US wine market, as this will lead to a future USDA NIFA SCRI CAP grant application.
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
80%
Applied
0%
Developmental
20%
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
2041131102030%
2051131108015%
5011131106015%
5021131309030%
9031131302010%
Goals / Objectives
The goal of this planning project is to gather and evaluate data about challenges and similarities of grape and wine industry across diverse climatic regions in the US as well as to develop a strategic plan with research and extension and outreach priorities. A questionnaire will be created to identify gaps and challenges of the grape and wine industry nationwide with focus on key wine grape production states. This questionnaire will be disseminated to those who make decisions in vineyard and winery operations, including owners, grape growers, winemakers and marketing/sales managers. These individuals will participate in coordinated annual conferences in each state. Then, four focus groups will be organized in Iowa, Pennsylvania, Texas and Oregon to represent four US regions, the Midwest, Great Lakes, South and West region. Those focus groups will gather academic researchers, extension specialists, and industry stakeholders through representatives of grape and wine associations. During those focus group sessions, there will be presentations and discussions about gaps and challenges of grape and wine industry of the involved US states, as identified by the questionnaires. Priorities will be identified and composed as strategic plans for research and extension outreach programs in those regions. Three components will be discussed and prioritized, including genetics/viticulture, enology, and marketing; all are interconnected and necessary to improve the productivity and wine quality potential of the grape and wine industry overall. Notes taken from those focus groups will be composed in a summary final report to be shared with states represented. These findings will be shared with other US states during a meeting organized at the 2024 American Society for Enology and Viticulture Eastern Section conference, involving all PIs of the planning project. During this meeting, a strategic plan will be developed and disseminated to the US grape and wine industry that will include the priorities for research programs and extension and outreach programs in those regions. Additionally, this information will inform future collaborative grant efforts that seek to raise the caliber of US wine grape production. This planning project will conclude by the redaction of a USDA SCRI CAP proposal.In the current proposed project, we plan tobuild a national network to increase industry cohesion, coordinate outreach efforts, and foster systems-thinking across project topic areas. We aim to create a suite of positive outcomes like those of Northern Grapes, including in-person presentations, webinars, newsletters articles, networking opportunities and the development of research projects as part of a USDA SCRI CAP grant.
Project Methods
The planning grant will support five key phases of work to be conducted over a year from October 2023 to September 2024:Questionnaire (October-December 2023) and Annual State Conferences (January-March 2024)Prior to the development of the questionnaire, an IRB application will be submitted. The questionnaire will be developed and tested prior to providing it to industry stakeholders. It will be distributed online to the grape and wine industry members at the step of registration to the annual conferences of the US states involved in this project. This will allow some time for participants of the conference to complete the survey and to have some data to discuss during the annual conferences. Between 30 and 60 minutes will be allocated during each annual state conference to explain the goal of the project, the expectations and needs from the participants and the first data obtained from the state at the time of registration.The questions will focus on socio-demographics: size of vineyard, winery and space for events; history of the vineyard, and/or winery; names of cultivars grown and used; volume of wine produced; background of tasting room managersQuestions will be dedicated to: challenges in growing grapes at their location, (soil, water, hardiness, pests, diseases, etc.); challenges of wine production, winery threats and positive aspects; market demand, expectations of consumers; educational needs to improve the industry.After gathering the results of the survey by category and by state/region, a comprehensive report will be written and shared with the US grape and wine industry through extension publications available in each state, such as "Appellation Cornell" in NY; and disseminated through presentations at the annual conferences held in each of the participating states.Data gathered by region will be presented during the focus group of those regions to lead to discussions and sharing ideas to develop a strategic plan for research and extension and outreach programs.Four regionally aligned focus groups (April 2024 - May 2024)Focus group 1 in the US Midwest region organized in Ames, Iowa:This focus group will be led by the PD (Aude Watrelot, Iowa State University) and organized with Enology and Viticulture Extension and University representatives of the Midwest region (Suzanne Slack, Iowa State University; Matthew Clark and Drew Horton, University of Minnesota; Harlene Hatterman-Valenti, North Dakota State University). The focus group will involve industry stakeholders and representative from Iowa (Chris Larsen, Iowa Wine Growers Association (IWGA); Bob Wersen, Tassel Ridge Winery), Minnesota (Josie Boyle, Minnesota Grape Growers Association (MGGA) and Linda Seppanen, Minnesota Farm Winery Association), and North Dakota (Rodney Hogen, North Dakota Grape and Wine Association; and interest and support was confirmed with an additional industry representative, with plans to invite to the focus group).Focus group 2 in the US "Great Lakes" region organized in College State/University Park, Pennsylvania:This focus group will be led by the co-PD (Cain Hickey, Penn State University) and organized with Viticulture, Enology and Marketing Extension and University representatives of the Great Lakes region (Kathy Kelley, and Misha Kwasniewski, Penn State University; Anna Katharine Mansfield, Hans Walter-Peterson and Jason Londo, Cornell University; and Dan McCole and Esmaeil Nasrollahiazar, Michigan State University). The focus group will involve industry stakeholders and representatives from Pennsylvania (Mario Mazza, Pennsylvania Wine Marketing and Research Program (PWMRP)), from Michigan (Jessica Youngblood, Michigan Craft Beverage Council, and Gina Shay, Michigan Wine Collaborative) and New York (Sam Filler, New York Wine and Grape Foundation).Focus group 3 in the US South region organized in College Station, Texas:This focus group will be led by the PI (Andreea Botezatu, Texas A&M University) and organized with Viticulture and Enology Extension and University representatives of the South region (Justin Scheiner, Texas A&M University; Sarah Lowder, University of Georgia; Mark Hoffman, North Carolina University). The focus group will involve industry stakeholders and representatives from Texas (January Wiese, Texas Hill Country Wineries and Glena Yates, Texas Wine and Grape Growers Association (TWGGA), Georgia (Jane Miller, Georgia Wine Producers) and North Carolina (Patti Friszolowski, North Carolina Winegrowers Association).Focus group 4 in the US West region organized in Salem, Oregon:This focus group will be led by the PI (Patricia Skinkis, Oregon State University) and organized with Viticulture and Enology Extension and University representatives of the West region (James Osborne, Oregon State University; Anita Oberholster and Karen Block, University of California Davis; Horst Caspari and Charlotte Oliver, Colorado State University). This focus group will involve industry stakeholders and representatives from Oregon (Tom Danozski, Oregon Wine Board), California (Jason Saling, Sonoma County Vineyard Technical Group) and Colorado (Cassidee Shull, Colorado Association for Viticulture and Enology (CAVE)).The focus groups will be organized in-person, with the option of virtual set up for additional stakeholders who could not travel.3. Industry engagement and implementation meeting during the ASEV-ES conference (June 2024)The data gathered during the regionally aligned focus groups will be shared to all PIs listed in the Program staffs document of this project at the American Society for Enology and Viticulture-Eastern Section (ASEV-ES). The meeting will be organized as an extra day of the conference (the exact location of the ASEV-ES 2024 conference has not yet been decided). The goal of this meeting is to prioritize the needs of the grape and wine industry in the US based on the regions' characteristics and develop a comprehensive plan for Research and Extension and outreach programs. The meeting will include oral and poster-based presentations highlighting the dominant industry needs gathered at both the individual state and regional level. The sessions describing the findings from each regional group will be moderated by the leader of each of the focus groups.The current Research and Extension and Outreach programs available in each region will be presented and discussed to identify methods to better meet the needs of the industry in different regions, and new approaches that can be adopted.4. Dissemination / development of planning for Research and Extension and Outreach programsKey issues and opportunities identified by stakeholders will enable the research team to develop extension publications to disseminate the findings to industry stakeholders of each state. In addition to extension publications such as Cornell Appellation in NY, presentations will be prepared and shared in webinar series of the different US regions including but not limited to ASEV-ES Grapevines to Wines Hangtime webinar series, ISU/UMN Research and Winemaking webinar series, Eastern Viticulture & Enology Forums, Office Hours with Dave and Anita.A full USDA SCRI CAP proposal will be drafted based on all the priorities identified and challenges of different US regions during the focus group discussions and from the feedback and discussions received during the meeting of ASEV-ES. The leaders of the focus groups and PIs of this proposal will work together on the draft of the CAP proposal.

Progress 09/01/23 to 08/31/24

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience of our project includes: Multi-state institutions with faculty, researchers, staff and extension specialists of the grape and wine field from breeding programs to viticulture, enology and wine marketing, consumer behavior and wine business. In this project a team of 15 faculty and staff and extension specialists worked together from Iowa State University, Penn State University, Texas A&M, Oregon State University, North Dakota State University, Cornell University, Michigan State University and University of Minnesota to develop and reach to the target audience. During our focus group meetings organized in 4 US regions, we reached out to faculty, staffs, and extension specialists of other universities including UC Davis, Washington State University, Colorado State University, Oklahoma State University, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Georgia State University, University of Arkansas, Virginia Tech, and Ohio State University. This audience was participating in focus group discussions and provided their insights about the challenges that they hear from the grape and wine industry members with who they work. In addition to the focus group meetings, this target audience was also involved in the strategic planning meeting organized and delivered on July 8th in Cleveland Ohio prior to the American Society for Enology and Viticulture Eastern Section conference. Other faculty, researchers and extension specialists were participating in this conference and who learned about the project and the preliminary results of the project Industry association representatives were involved in the project as they received emails to share the questionnaire with the grape and wine industry members of their state and participated in the focus group meetings organized in 4 US regions. The Washington State Wine Commission, the Oregon Wine Board, the New York Wine and Grape Foundation, the Minnesota Grape Growers Association, and the Iowa Wine Growers Association presidents participated in the discussion of the focus group meeting and shared the challenges of their state industry. Industry stakeholders: Grape growers, vineyard managers, winery owners, winemakers, tasting room managers were all involved in the project through the completion of the questionnaire and their participation in the focus group meetings. We reached out to 1,145 industry stakeholders, which was the number of surveys started, from 40 states. These surveys were completed by 14% of vineyard owner, 12% of wine grape grower and 12% of winemaker, 9% of winery owner, and 2% or less of wine retailer, vineyard management company, vineyard manager, viticulturist, hobby grape grower/winemaker, business/general manager, cellar assistant /assistant winemaker, consultant /crop advisor and enologist. This target audience was also reached out through the participation of a webinar organized by WineAmerica to their members who were the National Grape Research Alliance, Wine Business Monthly, Associations representatives and industry members (25 participants), and through the presentation of this project at a workshop organized by PennState University (estimated 15-20 live participants; over 20 pre-registrants), the master sommelier festival organized in Missouri (40 participants). Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Graduate students from Iowa State University, Texas A & M, Cornell University, Penn State University, and Oregon State University have been involved in the organization of the focus group meetings and have develop skills in taking notes for a full day of discussion about the grape and wine industry in their region, and learn about the organization of a focus group meeting. This was a professional activity resulting in increased knowledge and skills in extension and outreach. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?As explained under the Outputs section, the results have been disseminated to the target audience through: Workshops: A presentation of the data obtained in this project was provided during a field day offered by Penn State Extension on August 14,2024. The data presented included national data and northeast region data obtained from the questionnaire and the focus group meeting discussions, and specifically focused on Pennsylvania data. A presentation of the project and data obtained from the questionnaire and the focus group meetings and the strategic planning meeting was offered during the Master sommelier festival in Missouri on August 18,2024. Webinars: We were invited on June 25,2024 by Wine America and the New York Grape and Wine Foundation to present our project including the goal of the project, and its organization, to members of Wine America. This webinar was 30-min long to present our project. Strategic planning meeting: We presented the project with outputs of the project during our strategic planning meeting on July 8in Cleveland, OH a day prior to the American Society for Enology and Viticulture - Eastern Section and discussed with participants of the conferences about this project. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We have been granted a no-cost extension to fulfill our fourth step of the project focusing on the dissemination of outcomes and development of planning for Research and Extension and Outreach programs. During the next reporting period, we will summarize findings and coordinate extension products (written, in person and virtual presentations) that will reach stakeholders. We will develop extension publications, hold webinars, and give presentations at workshops/conferences to disseminate the findings of the project to industry stakeholders. We expect to publish a newsletter article in the Oregon State University newsletter in September 2024, as well as in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences newsletter at Iowa State University in September 2024, and in Cornell University newsletter. Other newsletter and extension articles might be developed as well in other regions to disseminate to all our target audience (grape and wine industry members across the US) through various extension outlets. We will submit a peer-reviewed manuscript to the American Journal for Enology and Viticulture by the end of the newly extended performance period. We are planning to present the project, its organization and the results obtained to industry stakeholders during a webinar organized by the American Society for Enology and Viticulture (ASEV) and the Eastern Viticulture and Enology Forum webinar during Fall 2024/Spring 2025. We will present project results at winter conferences and meetings, such as the Eastern Winery Exposition and other meetings at which project leaders are speaking. We are working on developing a pre-proposal to submit to USDA NIFA for a project focusing on the findings obtained. We recently had a team meeting to determine likely directions and focus for this pre-proposal.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? 1. The lack of knowledge and coordination between emerging wine regions can be optimized to improve the resiliency of the US grape and wine industry. To this end, we have assembled a transdisciplinary team of researchers and extension specialists with experience in a broad range of disciplines (e.g., breeding and genetics, viticulture, enology, and social science/marketing) to identify the primary challenges faced by grape growers and winemakers when working in newer growing regions with emerging, climate-appropriate wine grape cultivars. By facilitating communication among wine grape industry stakeholders who are growing, producing and selling wines to consumers, we will better support this industry. These findings will serve to 1) Improve the production resiliency of regional grapes, 2) Improve winemaking techniques for high wine quality potential and consumer preference, and 3) Develop marketing/communication strategies. 2. Grape growers, winemakers and consumers need knowledge and communication channels to advance the production of this specialty crop in the US under a changing environment. In addition to this target audience, we plan to work with viticulturists, enologists, business and marketing and Extension specialists to better understand the challenges of the industry and provide better knowledge and tools to the industry members. 3. The main goal of this planning project is to gather and evaluate data about common and unique challenges of grape and wine industry across climatic regions in the US, as well as develop a strategic plan with research and extension and outreach priorities. a. To gather data, we developed a questionnaire including 34 questions to be distributed to the grape and wine industry members. This questionnaire was prepared, approved by IRB at Iowa State University (IRB ID 23-284), reviewed for validity by five experts in the field, prior to be disseminated through emails, newsletter articles, presentations at annual meetings and social media posts. The primary goal of this survey was to engage industry stakeholders to identify the primary concerns and issues impacting the grape and wine industry. We were particularly seeking feedback about three areas within the industry: (1) viticulture, (2) enology, and (3) winery business management. The questions were split into four sections: Demographics, Viticulture, Enology and Business marketing. In those three letter sections, we asked participants to rate, and rank the top challenges, and to then to describe how they have dealt with these challenges. Then the participants were being ask to do the same regarding resources needed to better address these concerns in the next 5-10 years. The questionnaire was distributed to industry stakeholders from January 9toMarch 29,2024. On February 7,the question about location has been forced as some of the initial surveys did not mention their location and could not be used included in a specific region. The collected data were analyzed and combined into an excel spreadsheet. Data were analyzed as a whole, with incomplete surveys not being considered in the final data analysis. A total of 1,145 surveys were obtained with 792 participants who fully completed the survey. At the national level, the top 3 viticulture challenges were disease management, pest management followed by environment and climate (including flood, fire, spring frosts, winter cold injury, herbicide drift, heatwave and drought). The top 3 challenges of enology encountered by the participants at the national level were the management of the production costs, of microbial spoilage and of wine acidity. The top 3 challenges of business and marketing were about the distribution of wine through channels other than winery/tasting rooms, learning about profiles of winery visitors and the evolving consumer preferences for alcoholic beverages. Resources that are needed from the participants to address those challenges include applied research, extension programs and labor in all four regions. b. Monthly meetings have been carried out with the team members of the project to work on those data analysis as well as for planning focus group meetings. Four focus groups were organized for each region and met during May to June 2024 both in person and on Zoom. The focus group meetings followed the same agenda for a full day discussion starting by a presentation of the project and the questionnaire data, a brief presentation of the states involved, and followed by discussion and questions for each individual competencies (viticulture, enology and business/marketing). - West region: organized by Oregon State University on 1 May 2024. - Northeast region: organized byPenn State University on 15 May 2024. - Midwest region: organized byIowa State University on 28 May 2024. - South region: organized by Texas A&M on 10 June 2024. Notes of the discussion were taken during each focus group meetings and were reviewed to identify the themes that are researchable, the themes that are education-based and the themes that are out of control from academia. Below is a general listing of some of the themes that were discovered at the focus group meetings; note - these were not analyzed and are therefore not necessarily the "primary/most important" themes, nor is this list exhaustive. The researchable themes for viticulture and enology are Climate change impacts on future grape production, Sustainability, Better job integrating research and Extension. The education-based themes are Viticulture and enology best practices, Focus content and reach, and how to reach industry stakeholders. The themes that are out of control from academia are Labor, and Market. The researchable themes in business and marketing are Wine economics, Wine business analysis, Research approach. The education-based themes and that are out of control from academia are Distribution channels and market research c. The third goal of our project was to develop a strategic plan to identify priorities for viticulture, enology and business based on the national survey and focus groups feedback, identify common concerns and those that are unique, focusing on what we can do nationally, and develop a strategic plan for research and extension and outreach programs in the four regions, to improve the productivity and wine quality potential of the grape and wine industry overall. We organized a strategic planning meeting on July 8,2024 in Cleveland, OH. This was a full day meeting offered one day before the American Society of Enology and Viticulture - Eastern Section conference. The audience of this meeting was mainly team members of the project and we contacted the ASEV-ES members to join if they were interested to learn about the challenges of the grape and wine industry as well as if they were willing to discuss and share their experiences. The meeting involved 24 persons. During this meeting, many topics were discussed including the need for extension programs that should be related to the research programs, sustainability, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the grape and wine industry, the challenges of acidity management and quality of wines. A follow up meeting was carried out with team members of the project about one month after the strategic planning meeting to gather all these ideas and come up with a refine and strategic plan. The goal of this is to start working on a pre-proposal for a USDA project. During this year of the project, we developed the questionnaire that was distributed to our target audience. We gathered all quantitative data and qualitative data from this questionnaire and also developed focus group meetings and gathered more qualitative data. After the final meeting of this project, we accomplished our goal of identifying the common and unique challenges of the grape and wine industry across different climatic regions.

Publications