Growing grapes in Norway

[mark e]

As many of you know, I live in Norway. Recently, we moved to the east side of the Oslo fjord into a row house bordering the woods with some common land where a vineyard project had already been underway for a year. I am participating in that now, along with a few other residents willing to dig holes in a very rocky, south-facing hillside where we will set up a three-wire trellis soon.

One of the pictures shows rocks we have dug out of the planting holes and another a vine planted last year which recently broke bud and is rapidly growing owing to the 18 hours of daylight we have this time of year.

All the vines planted so far are Solaris as that was thought to be well adapted to the climate, which really never goes below -15degC in winter. There are purportedly about 10 hectares of vines in Norway, but that will certainly increase. Solaris evidently has done quite well in Sweden, so I look forward to trying some Swedish versions soon.

Interestingly, Solaris is a Merzling x Geisenheim 6493 hybrid bred in 1975, where Geisenheim 6493 is a Zarya Severa x Muscat Ottonel hybrid; Zarya Severa is a Seyanets Malengra x Vitis amurensis hybrid, and Seyanets Malengra is a seedling of Précoce de Malingre. (Quoted in part from Robinson et al. "Wine Grapes" p. 1006, 1st ed.)

The variety is recommended by PIWI International. The acronym stands for pilzwiderstandsfähige varieties bred for resistance to fungal diseases.

I have been quite interested in growing these hybrids because of the opportunity to reduce inputs during the vegetative season, so I will try to document if we have issues with mildew, particularly downy mildew.

I look forward to harvest and winemaking in a few years!

 

[georg lauer]

originally posted by mark e:
Growing grapes in Norway

All the vines planted so far are Solaris as that was thought to be well adapted to the climate, which really never goes below -15degC in winter. There are purportedly about 10 hectares of vines in Norway, but that will certainly increase. Solaris evidently has done quite well in Sweden, so I look forward to trying some Swedish versions soon.

Interestingly, Solaris is a Merzling x Geisenheim 6493 hybrid bred in 1975, where Geisenheim 6493 is a Zarya Severa x Muscat Ottonel hybrid; Zarya Severa is a Seyanets Malengra x Vitis amurensis hybrid, and Seyanets Malengra is a seedling of Précoce de Malingre. (Quoted in part from Robinson et al. "Wine Grapes" p. 1006, 1st ed.)

The variety is recommended by PIWI International. The acronym stands for pilzwiderstandsfähige varieties bred for resistance to fungal diseases.

I have been quite interested in growing these hybrids because of the opportunity to reduce inputs during the vegetative season, so I will try to document if we have issues with mildew, particularly downy mildew.

I look forward to harvest and winemaking in a few years!

I had a surprisingly delicious dry wine made out of Muscaris a while ago, which is Solaris x Muskateller. It had a lot of the Muskateller aromatics I like. Not only PIWI but supposedly also being much less demanding with regards to site when compared to Muskateller. Could be another option.

 

[Jayson Cohen]

Sounds like a great project!

My admittedly naive brain goes to: I wonder if you could get some Riesling and Pinot material from the Keller Norwegian project as an experiment (thinking whatever has survived the winters there for many years now might be good candidates). Or is it just too cold or growing season too short (or other reason doesn’t make sense) for vinifera near Oslo as compared to southern coastal Norway?

 

[Steve Edmunds]

the vine photo could be the poster for the next iteration of "Sideways." Slow morning in Berkeley...

 

[mark e]

originally posted by georg lauer:

originally posted by mark e:
Growing grapes in Norway

All the vines planted so far are Solaris as that was thought to be well adapted to the climate, which really never goes below -15degC in winter. There are purportedly about 10 hectares of vines in Norway, but that will certainly increase. Solaris evidently has done quite well in Sweden, so I look forward to trying some Swedish versions soon.

Interestingly, Solaris is a Merzling x Geisenheim 6493 hybrid bred in 1975, where Geisenheim 6493 is a Zarya Severa x Muscat Ottonel hybrid; Zarya Severa is a Seyanets Malengra x Vitis amurensis hybrid, and Seyanets Malengra is a seedling of Précoce de Malingre. (Quoted in part from Robinson et al. "Wine Grapes" p. 1006, 1st ed.)

The variety is recommended by PIWI International. The acronym stands for pilzwiderstandsfähige varieties bred for resistance to fungal diseases.

I have been quite interested in growing these hybrids because of the opportunity to reduce inputs during the vegetative season, so I will try to document if we have issues with mildew, particularly downy mildew.

I look forward to harvest and winemaking in a few years!

I had a surprisingly delicious dry wine made out of Muscaris a while ago, which is Solaris x Muskateller. It had a lot of the Muskateller aromatics I like. Not only PIWI but supposedly also being much less demanding with regards to site when compared to Muskateller. Could be another option.

Yes, that might be a good idea as well. I see there are some blends of Muscaris and Solaris available so it might be interesting to try them vs. 100% Solaris. I had also thought about varieties such as La Crescent, considered one of the best University of Minnesota hybrids, but honestly we don't need the vines to be that winter hardy (-20 to -35 °F for La Crescent) and the vine material is not available.

 

[mark e]

originally posted by Jayson Cohen:
Sounds like a great project!

My admittedly naive brain goes to: I wonder if you could get some Riesling and Pinot material from the Keller Norwegian project as an experiment (thinking whatever has survived the winters there for many years now might be good candidates). Or is it just too cold or growing season too short (or other reason doesn’t make sense) for vinifera near Oslo as compared to southern coastal Norway?

Could do. Southern coastal Norway is much warmer, both in winter and summer than near the Oslo fjord. There probably is no issue with winter hardiness owing to global warming, BUT (and it is a big one) I am disinclined to spray for downy mildew as often as required (it does rain often in the summer) for vinifera, ergo my interest in hybrids.

 

[MLipton]

Interesting project, Mark. I will follow your reports closely. Have you installed trellising yet, and if so what form of trellising did you choose? 18 h days combined with 6 weeks of summer will make for a hectic growing season, I’m sure.

Good luck!
Mark Lipton

 

[mark e]

originally posted by MLipton:
Have you installed trellising yet, and if so what form of trellising did you choose?

Only a few posts are in right now and we need to figure out the anchors at the ends of the rows, but it will be super simple. Three wires with the fruiting canes on the lowest.

 

[mark e]

originally posted by mark e:

originally posted by MLipton:
Have you installed trellising yet, and if so what form of trellising did you choose?

Only a few posts are in right now and we need to figure out the anchors at the ends of the rows, but it will be super simple. Three wires with the fruiting canes on the lowest.

The vines are growing vigorously. We now have all the posts, first wire and drip irrigation installed. Fortunately, there has been a fair amount of rain which caused a growth spurt.

The group will do a hybrid wine tasting in August including single-varietal wines and blends of solaris, muscaris, souvignier gris and sauvignac, and then decide which grapes we will plant in a new area next year (maybe 30 vines).

 

[Florida Jim]

Which variety is growing now (pictured)?

 

[mark e]

originally posted by Florida Jim:
Which variety is growing now (pictured)?

Solaris

Here is one of the few 2nd-year Solaris vines that survived:

 

[Jayson Cohen]

Awesome

 

[MLipton]

How will you train them, Mark? Dual cordon or something more elaborate? They’re looking good. I’ll post a pic of my two-year vines when I see them in a couple of days.

Mark Lipton

 

[mark e]

originally posted by MLipton:
How will you train them, Mark? Dual cordon or something more elaborate? They’re looking good. I’ll post a pic of my two-year vines when I see them in a couple of days.

Mark Lipton

It is pretty tight spacing in the row, 90 cm - 1 meter (though there are about 2+ meters between rows as the vineyard needs to be terraced (we are creating a rock wall behind the vines so that heat given off at night), so we are planning to cane prune with a single cane on the wire and a renewal spur. Definitely planning to do shoot thinning, positioning and crop thinning as well so we can get the fruit ripe before it gets too cold and wet. Fall starts in August here.

 

[mark e]

originally posted by mark e:

originally posted by MLipton:
How will you train them, Mark? Dual cordon or something more elaborate? They’re looking good. I’ll post a pic of my two-year vines when I see them in a couple of days.

Mark Lipton

It is pretty tight spacing in the row, 90 cm - 1 meter (though there are about 2+ meters between rows as the vineyard needs to be terraced (we are creating a rock wall behind the vines so that heat given off at night), so we are planning to cane prune with a single cane on the wire and a renewal spur. Definitely planning to do shoot thinning, positioning and crop thinning as well so we can get the fruit ripe before it gets too cold and wet. Fall starts in August here.

The vines continue to grow about 10 cm every couple of days with zero sign of downy mildew, notwithstanding the rain and warm weather.

 

[mark e]

originally posted by mark e:

originally posted by mark e:

originally posted by MLipton:
Have you installed trellising yet, and if so what form of trellising did you choose?

Only a few posts are in right now and we need to figure out the anchors at the ends of the rows, but it will be super simple. Three wires with the fruiting canes on the lowest.

The vines are growing vigorously. We now have all the posts, first wire and drip irrigation installed. Fortunately, there has been a fair amount of rain which caused a growth spurt.

The group will do a hybrid wine tasting in August including single-varietal wines and blends of solaris, muscaris, souvignier gris and sauvignac, and then decide which grapes we will plant in a new area next year (maybe 30 vines).

here is an update of what the Solaris vines look like on year 2. The top wire is at about 2 meters.

 

[MLipton]

Looking really good. Any fungal issues? We’ve had to contend with some black rot here in the steamy Midwest but nothing too serious thankfully.

Mark Lipton

 

[mark e]

originally posted by MLipton:
Looking really good. Any fungal issues? We’ve had to contend with some black rot here in the steamy Midwest but nothing too serious thankfully.

Mark Lipton

Thanks. No fruit yet, so no issues there, but it has been raining a lot, and there has been very cool weather. The weeds and cover crop are growing much better than last year and there is no sign of disease on the leaves. Yet. As you know we are not growing vinifera, rather a PiWi hybrid.