GENEVA, Ohio — Northeast Ohio is known for many things including wine and the cold, but sometimes the two don’t mix.
At Ferrante’s in Geneva, while they're gearing up for their busiest time of year, Nicholas Ferrante heads out every day to check his crops.
When it comes to harvesting grapes and making wine, all the seasons play an important role.
During the fall the vines go dormant, beginning to prune in the winter then comes the spring when the vines began to grow.
The only problem is with longer winters and continuous freezing nights, instead of growing, some of those buds could freeze.
“When we get a night like last night where it was down to 26 or 27 degrees that damages these buds and that could result in the loss of the tonnage of the grapes that are going to be produced,” said Ferrante.
If those buds freeze it could also affect the bottles on the shelf.
“Less wine being made means we have less product to sell. So, it just trickles down from the grapes to the wine to sales. So, it just it's a loss all the way through the process,” said Ferrante.
Ferrante says they do have machines in place to help during those cold nights, but below certain temperatures that machine isn’t as effective. So, for Ferrante, he'll just have to wait a few days until he knows how his crop did.
“We could take like a razor knife, and we could cut into it, if they're green inside that means they're alive. If they're brown inside or black, they have not survived,” said Ferrante.
Ferrante says even if their crops take a hit, they do have relationships with other vineyards in different states that they could work with to still produce their wine.
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