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About PWGN

The purpose of this website is to give commercial wine growers in Pennsylvania and the non-western wine states access to current and relevant viticulture news, information, and events that will enable them to grow high quality wine grapes. It will be a source of locally produced materials but also a portal to the amazing wealth of viticulture information available on the internet. The resources that reside on this site are carefully selected by the viticulture educator.  It is central to our extension mission to discover and transfer practical research-based knowledge to the grape growing industry, but we also seek the best new ideas and technologies from innovative grower/practitioners. We hope you will find it useful and we welcome your comments and feedback. Thank you for visiting and please return often for more news and information.

I welcome your comments and suggestions about this website. Please send your ideas for future topics and how cooperative extension can help you and your vineyard to mlc12@psu.edu.

Read a brief summary of the Pennsylvania wine industry and look at PHOTOS of people and their vineyards. 

 

These organizations have generously funded the PA Wine Grape Network:

Paul Milnes and Mark 1200.jpg - 187.23 Kb

Paul Milnes, owner of Sugar Hollow Vineyard in Tunkhannock (Endless Mountains) with viticulture extension educator Mark Chien on a cold winter day in the vineyard

Spotlight

Spotlight!

The Finger Lakes is on a roll.  I had not been to this lovely wine region for a couple of years and a recent visit reminded me what great white wines can be made here.  As fine as the wines are, the people are even more remarkable. I tried to summarize my visit in my Finger Lakes Notes. 

We are deep into winter meeting season, a time to learn about new ideas, practices and technologies in viticulture and enology, and to network and meet with friends. There are many NEW additions to the events calendar!  To decide where and when to go, browse through the 2012 EVENTS CALENDAR and access meeting registration materials and information.

A NEW GRAPE GROWER WORKSHOP is being offered on Friday, March 9th at the Lancaster Marriott Hotel in Lancaster, PA, in cooperation with the Eastern Winery Exposition. New and prospective wine grape growers can learn how to develop a commercial vineyard in this intensive, full-day workshop. 

Wine Grape Integrated Pest Management spring workshop will feature Wendy McFadden-Smith (sour rot management), Tim Weigle (organic grape growing), Tremain Hatch (grapevine yellows), and the Penn State grape pathology team. Location is PSU Berks campus on Wednesday, 21 March. The meeting will broadcast to extension offices in Erie, Westmoreland and Susquehanna counties.  View program and INFORMATION- REGISTRATION. 

View the most recent (February 20) Penn State Wine Grape Program viticulture e-newsletter

Pruning: You can find information about balanced pruning and vines in the Viticulture section.  I try to explain the complex relationship between Vine Size and Balance. This is a goal that is achieved in all great vineyards and wines. You cannot properly develop or prune a vineyard without understand these principles. 

Grape Section in Hershey: Bird Management (Chien)

Quick Resources

 

Mark L. Chien
Viticulture Educator
Penn State Cooperative Extension

Features

Featured Article(s): Notes from Long Island: a January visit to Shinn Estate Vineyard; a vineyard tour and grower discussions with Alice Wise; and from the Long Island Ag Forum excellent information about botrytis, sour rot and other grape diseases from Dr. Wayne Wilcox and Dr. Wendy McFadden-Smith. Dr. Tim Martinson reported on the affects of vineyard nitrogen on yeast assimilable nitrogen in juice and wine, and its affect on botrytis (article).  

Featured Web Site(s): The Virginia Vineyards Association may be the strongest and most active grape grower organization in the East.  Looking at their six goals it's easy to see why the Virginia wine industry is growing so fast. Their annual meeting, just held in Charlottesville, is always one of the best of the year.  Their website contains a lot of excellent news and information, particularly the resources page which focuses on speaker presentations and research projects at Virginia Tech.

Denise Gardner, Penn State extension enology website

Previous featured websites: Linden Vineyards (see vintage summaries and article archives), Texas Winegrape Network, Cornell Research, VinoVic

Featured Extension Educators: we'll find one soon!

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