Growing grapes

There are many varieties of grapes that can be grown, and are grown all over the world. However, the varieties that are used to make wine require a long growing season with a warm fall. For this reason, there are certain areas where wine grape vineyards can be found and lots of places where these grapes cannot successfully be cultivated.

It would seem logical then, that there would be wine production in some states but not in many others. For instance, California has a massive wine industry, while North Dakota does not. Although this general look at geography can predict the size of the wine industry in a state, nearly every state has some wine production. This raises the question of how a state with a short growing season and an cool fall can produce wine grapes.

The answer is water.

As an example, there are three regions of New York State where there is a notable wine industry. Those three regions are Long Island, the Finger Lakes Region, and the area outside of Buffalo. What each of these regions have in common are large bodies of water. Buffalo borders Lake Erie, Long Island is a peninsula in the Atlantic Ocean and the Finger Lakes Region has, obviously, a series of lakes.

In each case, the water holds heat from the summer and transfers it to the surrounding land well into the fall, lengthening the growing season and allows wine grape cultivation.

In each case, the size of the body of water determines how far away the grapes can be grown—most of Long Island is suitable and a fairly sizeable area around Lake Erie can be used, but grapes can only be grown within a mile or two of the much smaller Finger Lakes