HATFIELD, Mass. — Ian Modestow slammed on the brakes and leapt from the golf cart, making a beeline for a section of wilted grapevines coiled around a trellis stopping only to stoop down and adjust a grapevine.
“This one isn't doing too well,” said Modestow, pointing at a stub of a woody vine protruding a few inches above a mound of soil. “We had to cut all the way down here because of the cold damage. But those vines over there are doing just fine because they're in a drier spot and are less vulnerable.”
Modestow is the Director of Wine Growing and owner of Black Birch Vineyard in Hatfield, along with his wife, Michelle Kersbergen. The past two years presented him with a wide range of issues caused by the increasing frequency of extreme weather patterns driven by climate change. Unpredictable rainfall presented Modestow with a set of unique challenges he had to overcome to produce an adequate harvest of high-quality fruit which would someday yield the award-winning wine that the Black Birch label is synonymous with.
“These two years have been dramatically different,” said Modestow. “We had dramatically wet, and this year, it's bone dry. Those are two very different years that posed two very different challenges for me as the grape farmer on what I'm going to do for the vineyard.”
Modestow recently sat down with Benjamin ZH Tan to discuss the challenges he faces growing wine grapes in the face of climate change. What follows is a transcript of their conversation. It has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Your website tells the story of your first exposure to wine growing in the Loire Valle. How did that influence your work at Black Birch Vineyard?
We were actually living in Amsterdam at the time, and we went camping in France. We were broke. So, we got a tent from her uncle, used their car and stayed at a farm winery in France. We got to meet the owners there and that's where it all started.
It was a very small winery where you could actually camp out in the back of your car, kind of thing. Which is kind of popular — at least it was then. That's how we got first exposed to grape vine and red wine for real in the Loire. We do have similar climate. They're a little bit warmer. They're drier. And I think they have a little bit longer growing season in the Loire itself. Loire is known for cabernet franc. We grow our estate cabernet franc. So yeah, we grow similar grapes in that respect.
What are the challenges of growing wine grapes Massachusetts? How does growing wine here differ from other regions like the Napa Valley or Oregon?
In Western Massachusetts, it's the cold winters. The coldest temperature in the winter is the biggest concern for us regarding the grapes. I am growing European varietals here, which are generally not as cold hardy as American-type grapes or hybrid-type grapes.
The biggest challenge that I have is that vines are going to get damaged in the winter from very cold temperatures. That's my No. 1 concern. And that differentiates us from Napa Valley. Preventing that damage would differentiate us big time from any other wine growing region.
We have to do several cultivation techniques that are different than what they have to do, even though we're growing the exact same wines. We mounded up this last week and actually pushed the soil up (around the vine). In winter, when it comes, that provides a measure of security. No matter how cold it gets, I always have a live vine that could be that could be potentially damaged with a cold winter.
Your biography on your website mentions the term “high density planting.” What is that, and how is it different from other vineyards?
High density planting refers to the spacing of the vines. There's a lot of vines per square foot. In other words, if you look down those rows, there's a vine every 3 feet. A regular density is every 6 feet. That's twice as many vines per square foot than what you would normally see. Plus, our rows are very narrow, between, 6 1/2 and 7 1/2 feet of space between the two sets of vines. Most places have 12 feet.
It's more work per row. My crew's got to do more work per row than they normally would. What are the challenges it poses? Is just it's a tighter space. Equipment's got to be smaller. We can't use a regular tractor.
How does the Connecticut Valley compare to Finger Lakes as a wine growing region?
The Finger Lakes has a very similar climate. Generally speaking, they don't get quite as cold as we do, because those lakes generally tend to moderate the very, very cold temperatures.
Last year, for example, they got as cold as I did. Most of the vineyards out there don't practice the same cultural techniques that I do and they had way more damage.
The majority of my vineyards, 11 1/2 acres, is cabernet franc out there. I can't produce enough cabernet franc, so we actually get fruit from the Finger Lakes to offset our sales. But this year, nobody in the Finger Lakes had cabernet franc because they all had damage from the cold in the winter, whereas I was able to pull out three and a half tons of fruit. Those guys had nothing.
I tend to think that while we are at a colder spot, we practice cultural techniques that prepare me.
Winters are getting milder and less predictable. How, how are you dealing with those challenges besides mounding up to protect the vines?
We do more than just mounding up to protect from the cold, to be clear about what we do. We mound up. We also do certain pruning techniques that give us greater flexibility if we were to receive cold damage.
This is going to sound crazy. But if global warming means that I have warmer winters, I'm OK with that. I think most growers are. Warmer winters because of climate change, that's a good thing for me. Because remember, my No. 1 concern is cold winters. If my winters become less cold, I'm OK with that. I'm not in the zone where I have to worry about, you know, 60-degree days for three weeks in the winters. It could happen, but that's unlikely.
Erratic temperatures, erratic weather in the winter isn't going to affect me as much. I guess if it got colder, then we would be talking a different thing. If climate change means that I have a colder winter, then that's a bad thing. But it's more likely to mean something warmer. It's wetter. It's going to be drier. OK in the winter, but during the growing season, different story. But in the winter, we want the warmth.
The growing season is when you're more susceptible to the effects of extreme temperature swings and rainfall. This is the perfect segue to ask about the drought this past summer. Were you affected?
It definitely made for smaller fruit. We didn't get as much. The berries weren't as big. They were smaller, but they were more concentrated so we actually had really good flavors.
Yield, meaning how much we harvested, was down. There's a reason why they grow grapevines in a desert in California and in other areas of the world because you can get really good concentrated fruit if you manipulate the water content. We don't. We're dry farmed here. I rely on the rain.
In New England, we generally never have to worry about it here. This was like a 50- year drought. Probably the worst drought in a long time. Some of my vines did start to show drought stress. And that definitely affected their growth.
I have three acres of newly planted vines. Those are just babies. Now, those vines were damaged by the drought. The little vines don't have mature root systems. I did have to irrigate after probably a month and a half of drought. I was just I was like waiting for it to rain.
This is a big farming valley. There's a lot of farmers there. Those guys are watering way earlier than I was because they don't have root systems like I do.
I was like, “oh, it's going to rain, eventually. It'll rain.”
I eventually had to dig two shallow wells and pump water into my baby vines just to save them. It's really striking what the drought did.
If grapevines thrive in drier, warmer climates, why this spot? Why Massachusetts?
Well, because I'm from Massachusetts, number one.
And I mean, why am I growing European grapevines here? Because we make really good wine with the grape vines that we have. And I think we're managing it.
Last year was a wettest year in 50 years. Are we going to have more years like that? I don't know. I hope not. I might be out of a vineyard if that continues to happen. If that's what climate change means for my vineyard, I'm in trouble.
But if climate change means what it was this year, I'll take it. Dry? I'll take a dry year. I can always drip irrigate. I'll put a drip irrigation system. If it's a month of dry, my vines are fine. Most of the mature (root) systems can go down. They're fine. In this area, in this spot? No problem. But I don't want the rain. Don't want the wet.
That speaks to disease too. Wet grapevines are disease prone, especially European grapevines. And that's why we do the trellis, hedging and tucking. They are all done to prevent disease.
Did you have an educational background in winemaking or agriculture before you started Black Birch Vineyard?
In 1990, I was studying at UMass. I then studied at the University of Amsterdam for a year. I was studying anthropology, archaeology at the time. Then I came back here and I finished my bachelor's.
I graduated from UMass, and went back to school and studied my sciences because I had to have a science background in order to go to dental school. I did that for two years. Went to dental school and I was a dentist from 2000 to 2010.
In 2010, my wife and I and two business partners started a vineyard not too far from here. It was called Black Birch Vineyard. It was in Southampton and we actually moved the name of the vineyard.
The vineyard is still there that we planted and that's called Glendale Vineyards. We got our license to sell wine, I think, in 2011. I was already making wine at that point.
I'm still a dentist on one day a week and I just sold my practice six months ago. I work seven days a week and this is actually the most relaxed I've been.
Is there any correlation between making wine and dentistry?
There is certainly a correlation between dentistry and wine in the winemaking. I mean if you think about it, is dentistry and winemaking are both rooted in science. There's chemistry involved with this. You really need to know your chemistry and what's going on. But there's also an art to it, right? You're tasting. You're blending how you want. That taste is totally subjective.
And same with dentistry. Dentistry is based on science of anatomy, pharmacology, whatever. But, you know, when you're shaping a tooth, that's purely artistic. My artistry that I'm doing on my patients, that's purely subjective, between me and the patient.
What is one thing about growing wine grapes that surprised you?
Farmers are always adapting, which I'm learning. You need to be adaptive and you need to be flexible and you need to chill out. Because it gets really stressful.
When bad things happen, you can't control it. And if you're used to controlling things, it's a problem mentally.
And that's extremely frustrating. So, you've got to learn to just kind of go with it. You got to roll with the punches.
I have a friend who's just starting out farming. He's a lawyer and I had to help him understand that he needs to just relax because he's getting stressed out about the weather and this and that.
I'm like, “that's farming. You've just got to relax. You've got to chill out. You've got to take as it comes and just adapt, change, figure out the problem and come up with a solution.” ◼