Agrovoltaics - A potential approach to mitigating the effects of climate change in the vineyard

The threat of the impacts of climate change on wine quality has sent winemakers scrambling for mitigating solutions to include: moving to higher altitudes; adding more heat tolerant varieties to the mix; adjusting canopy strategies; and agroforestry. But it is not only increased heat that is of concern; we also expect changes in the intensity and frequency of all adverse climatic events.

Agrovoltaics is an emerging approach that may be deployable in this engaged battle against and unleashed and unruly Mother Nature. Otherwise known as solar sharing, agrovoltaics places solar panels on the same land where crops are grown, allowing farmers to harvest the power of the sun twice.

Source: https://www.unitedwind.com/
innovation/sustainable-future-with-agrovoltaics/

Beyond a certain point -- the light saturation point -- light does not increase photosynthesis. Rather, the additional light causes the plant to sweat, increasing its demand for water. Solar panels can be positioned to allow crops just the right amount of sunlight with the excess diverted to electricity production. 

From the solar energy provider's perspective, it is expensive to clear and level land for the deployment of solar arrays. It would be much less expensive to deploy these arrays on land that is already in use.

Plants help to keep the solar panels cool, making them more efficient. It has been shown that solar panels emplaced above crops produce up to 10% more electricity than solar panels without underlying plants.

Large-scale solar arrays produce a so-called "heat island effect where temperatures in the vicinity are elevated as a result of the operation. Attempts have been made to reduce this effect by installing gravel beds below the arrays; the results have been unsatisfactory. Replacing the gravel beds with vegetation, on the other hand, has yielded significant positive effects.

According to an Oregon State University study, converting 1% of American farmland to agrovoltaics would:

• Allow us to meet national renewable energy targets
• Save water
• Create new revenue opportunities for small farmers.

Crops best suited for agrovoltaics are limited to those which are grown and harvested by hand or with the aid of small machinery. These include (NRCC):

• Shade-loving pollinator crops
• Bedding plants
• Small fruit trees and shrubs
• Vegetables
• Livestock.

There has been at least one vineyard trial utilizing this approach. The French solar provider Sun'R and its subsidiary Sun'Agri have established and experimental program in southern France in partnership with Environment and Energy Management Agency. The trial involves a 600 sq m dynamic system installed in a 1000 sq m Grenache vineyard. The system is comprised of 280 panels (capable of producing 84 kW of electricity) each placed 4.2 m above the vine rows. Movement of the panels is arbitrated by an AI system such as to optimize sunshine and water access as well as to shield the vines from heavy rain, frost, and heat.

Initial results from the trial show that:

• The panel structure shelters the vines from stunting during heatwaves
• The system reduces water demand by 12 - 34% due to a reduction in transpiration through the soil
• The aromatic profile of the berry has improved, with 13% more anthocyanin and 9 - 14% more acidity evident.

Much more data need to be presented as to the break-even size required for a vineyard to embark on this path, who benefits, who pays the cost, etc., before a more definitive position can be taken as regards this approach. But the promise is clear.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme

Los Angeles was the City of Vines before it became known as the City of Angels

I have been blaming the Spanish clergy for the Judgment of Paris debacle for French wines but further research places more direct responsibility on a ... Frenchman. Yes, a Frenchman. Sixteen years after his fellow countryman Jean David had backed out of a deal with Thomas Jefferson because, in his view, a successful US domestic wine industry could potentially do significant harm to the French wine industry, the aptly named Jean-Louis Vignes launched a US wine industry based on French varieties. Let's explore.

Jean-Louis Vignes
(Source: Balzac Communications)

Vignes surfaced in Monterey,  Alta California, 10 years after the conclusion of the Mexican War of Independence (1810 - 1821). He had been born in a small French village where his family were artisans: they made barrels for the local wine producers; they made their own wine; and they processed wine lees into lees ash for use as a fertilizer.

Jean-Louis left his village and eventually ended up in the Sandwich Islands where he grew sugar cane and distilled rum. The religious leaders were not fans and persuaded the authorities to ban the basis of his business, driving him into insolvency. He left for the US mainland, arriving in Monterey in 1831 and the Pueblo of Los Angeles later in the same year.

When Vignes arrived in LA, Mission grapes were grown by the Franciscans for sacramental purposes and outside the religious structure for the production of aguardiente (a brandy) and wine for local consumption. The primary industry was cattle-rearing but the "free-range" cattle were not suitable for consumption at table. Rather, the 76,000 head of cattle were used for tallow (62 million pounds shipped between 1826 and 1848) and hides (5 million shipped in the first half of the century). Vignes eventually purchased 104 acres of land on the west side of the Los Angeles River and named it El Aliso after the centuries-old tree located in the vicinity of the farm entrance.

Vignes started out with Mission grapes but was not satisfied with the quality of the wines. To address this shortcoming, he imported Cabernet and Sauvignon Blanc vines from his native Bordeaux, had them shipped around Cape Horn, and planted them in Los Angeles in 1833. This was the first instance of non-Mission vinifera being imported to the west coast of the US (Mazzei had imported Italian vitis vinifera to the east coast in 1774) and the first instance of Bordeaux varieties planted therein (A momentous event given that Bordeaux varietals would participate in the dethroning of French wines by Napa insurgents 143 years hence.). Vignes grafted the Bordeaux scions onto Mission rootstocks; and the rest is history.

Vignes was the first to grow quality wines in California and the first California producer to age his wines. The wood for the wine barrels was sourced from his holdings in the San Bernadino Mountains. It is likely that his first Bordeaux varietal vintage was in 1837. His wines were highly regarded and even made its way to the table of the then President Martin van Buren.

Buoyed by the prospects in California, Vignes wrote to his relatives in Cadillac, encouraging them to come join him. A nephew, Pierre Sainsevain, was the first to respond to the call, arriving in LA in 1839 and joining his Uncle's enterprise.

By 1840, the estate had made its first shipment north and by 1842, was making regular shipments to Santa Barbara, Monterey, and San Francisco, commanding prices of $4/gallon for brandy and $2/gallon for wine. By 1845 they were shipping 1000 barrels of wine and brandy north and by 1849, El Aliso was the most extensive vineyard in California with over 40,000 vines and annual production of 150,000 bottles per year.

Pierre's brother arrived in Los Angeles in 1849 and in 1855 Vignes sold El Aliso to the Sainsevain brothers for $42,000, the largest real estate transaction to that date in California. By that time Vignes was largely considered the founder of California's wine industry and would eventually have a street in downtown LA named after him. 

Vignes was instrumental in Los Angeles District becoming the original beating heart of the California wine industry. When gold was first discovered in California in 1848, demand increased for California wine and there were many new market entrants; entrants who sought out Vignes for advice and counsel. A total of 125 vineyards were operative in 1855, hosting 324,234 vines and producing 7000 lbs of fresh grapes and 100,000 gallons of wine and brandy. Seventy-five vineyards operated within the LA city limits, earning it the moniker "City of Vines." The road from Los Angeles to the port of San Pedro was called Vineyard Lane.

Los Angeles remained the center of California wine production until the nexus was shifted north by a number of factors including positives such as the arrival of the railroad and the rise of the citrus industry and negatives such as phylloxera, Pierce's disease, and Prohibition.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme

How the Mission Monks laid the groundwork for a viable US wine industry

I took a short detour from chronicling the Spanish-driven advance of vitis vinifera northward in New Spain to cover the faltering attempts at creating a wine industry in the English colonies along the eastern seaboard. Having conducted this necessary due diligence, I now return to the true story of wine in America: vitis vinifera in California.

When last I discussed the Spanish, I provided a high-level view of the spread of grapevines in Alta California. I flesh out the details in this post.

Juan Rodriguez Cabrello, a former Spanish conquistador residing in Guatemala, was commissioned by Pedro de Alvarado, the Governor, to explore the Pacific Ocean. Cabrello sailed out of Navidad on June 27, 1542, and landed at Ballast Point in San Diego Bay 108 days on, claiming the land for Spain. The expedition continued northward to Monterey Bay and overwintered in the Channel Islands where Cabrello died. The expedition continued north after his death, eventually reaching the Rogue River in today's Oregon.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, Spain became concerned about French, English, and Russian designs on its northern holdings which were, at that point, occupied by native peoples. Expansion of English holdings on the continent after the Seven-Year War heightened Spanish concerns about foreign incursions and the decision was taken in 1768 to settle these northern reaches. 

The Spanish plan for colonization of California was threefold comprising a religious, military and civil format. First and second stages consisted of the concurrent establishment of missions to civilize native Indians and military reservations, called presidios, to guard the missions and settlers against hostilities. The third stage was the establishment of farming communities called Pueblos.

The strategy was launched in 1769 when Captain Gaspar de Portolá and Father Juniperro Serra established a Presidio and a Mission (San Diego de Alcalá) in San Diego. The totality of institutions established by the Spaniards along the Pacific coast of Alta California is shown in the figure below.

Missions, Pueblas, and Presidios
established by the Spanish in
Alta California

One source points to the formation of Alta California "when Spain separated the Dominican Missions from the Franciscan Missions in approximately 1769 with the founding of the first Alta California mission in San Diego. Separate administrations were created in 1804 when the Province of the Californias, then a part of the Commandancy General of the Provincias Internas in the Viceroyalty of New Spain, was divided in two, along a line separating the Franciscan missions in the north from the Dominican missions in the south. The southern part became the territory of Baja California ... The northern part became Alta California" which roughly encompassed the current states of California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona north of the Gila River, along with parts of Colorado, Wyoming, and New Mexico.

Alta California (Source: sfsdhistory.com)

The remainder of this post focuses on the missions of Alta California, given their importance in the history of California wine.

Mission of the Missions

Religion and culture were inseparable within the Spanish Empire with the Catholic monarchs specifically decreeing the conversion of natives in newly discovered lands. Conversion allowed the incorporation of natives into the Spanish Empire and included "instruction in religion and the language, customs, economics, and skills of the Spaniards." Franciscan monks from the College of San Fernando in Mexico, and operating under the auspices of the Roman Catholic Church, were tasked with this conversion.

The Franciscans controlled the missions in Alta California until secularization. Friars with missionary experience from the College of San Fernando were selected to take over existing missions and to create new ones: "They knew the crafts of husbandry, weaving, carpentry and masonry" and were also well-versed in the teaching of religion.

Structure of the Missions

The dominant building at the mission was the Church which, in times of danger, could serve as a defensive structure. The facility also contained housing for priests, soldiers, married neophytes, and dormitories for male and single female neophytes.

A plan view of the Mission San Juan Capistrano complex
(including the footprint of the "Great Stone Church")
prepared by architectural historian Rexford Newcomb in 1916.
(Source: Wikipedia)

Mission San Diego de Alcalá, first California mission
(Source: missionscalifornia.com)

Drawing of Mission San Luis Rey de Francia
(Source: dunnedwards.com)

The sites were chosen based on water availability, available arable land, accessibility by sea or land and proximity to the center of native populations and were located one-day's journey apart. The road linking these missions was named El Camino Real.

Missions lands were of two types: (i) close-in to the mission and used for farming and small-animal agriculture and (ii) the land between missions which were used primarily for cattle-grazing (This latter class of lands were stripped from the missions in the land allocations conducted after the treaty ending the US-Mexico War (1846 - 1848).). Counts from 1834 show the missions owning 400,000 head of cattle, 60,000 horses, 300,000 goats, sheep, and swine. Crops that were grown include wheat, maize, beans, and other staples. Mission products included wine, brandy, leather, hides, wool, oil, cotton, hemp, linen, tobacco, and salt.

Mission Grape

The wine produced at the missions were made with Mission grapes grown therein. The characteristics of the Mission grape are shown in the chart below.

Mission San Gabriel came to be called La Vina Madre because of its 170 acres of vineyards.

Vineyard labor was provided by the natives but it was not voluntary. The natives were enticed to become baptized and, once they were, they were made to renounce their ways, reside in the mission, and provide labor, inclusive of vineyard work.

Mission Wine

A simple table wine and a fortified wine were made at the missions. The table wine was of a lighter variety and, due to a lack of proper storage, did not age well. The fortified wine was made from a mixture of freshly crushed mission grapes and brandy, the ratio being 3 gallons of juice to 1 gallon of 180 proof brandy. The must should not be allowed to ferment. This was a very sweet wine and can still be found in small amounts in California today under the moniker Angelica.

What did the Monks Accomplish?

The monks were instrumental to the development of California and the California wine industry in a number of ways:

• They were at the vanguard at opening up the region for settlement (On the other side of the coin, this was deleterious to the population and social fabric of the native populations who had previously occupied the land)
• They established that grapes could be successfully grown along the western seaboard of the US
• They established that vitis vinifera could be successfully grown in the US.

The chart below shows the correlation of the current-day California wine regions with the historical emplacement of missions within the state. To the naked eye, the correlation seems rather high.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme

Barboursville Vineyards (Barboursville, VA): Closing Jeffersonian loops

My initial post on Barboursville Vineyards was subtitled "The marriage of Italian expertise, international varieties, and the Monticello terroir. This was not the first time that this trifecta has been attempted. Rather, it was first explored by Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States. I explore the historical context herein.

Barboursville was founded by Gianni Zonin -- of the 7-generation, Northern Italian winemaking family of the same name -- who acquired the 18th-century Barbour Family estate and planted it to Cabernet Franc and Merlot in 1976. In 1990 Gianni brought Luca Paschina from his Piemonte home to be the General Manager-Winemaker at the estate with the mandate to "renew those vineyards and restore them to the path of producing the fine wines of great stature which Jefferson and he (ed.: Gianni) envisioned ..." I will explore Jefferson's concept of wines of great stature and comment on Barboursville's attainment of that elevated ideal.

The First Instance of the "Jefferson Trifecta"

The first Italian to pursue making quality wines within this framework was Philip Mazzei, a Tuscan-born doctor who, when he first came up on the American radar, was operating a successful firm in London which imported Champagne, Burgundy wines, and oil and cheese from Italy. Mazzei was an engaging sort of fellow and two of his friends at that time were Ben Franklin and Thomas Adams. Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers, was, at that time, the agent in England for the colony of Pennsylvania. Adams, also a Founding Father, and the second President of the US, was, at that time, a Virginia merchant.

Philip Mazzei

Based on discussions with his American friends, Mazzei, by 1971, decided to launch an initiative focused on importing Mediterranean plants and farmers into Virginia. After some delay he was able to secure the permission of the Grand Duke of Tuscany to take plants and workers out of the duchy. The first phase of Mazzei's plan fell into place with his arrival in Virginia in November 1773 along with 10 Tuscan vine farmers.

Mazzei's plans called for the acquisition of land in the open western highlands but on the way to inspect prospective sites in Shenandoah Valley -- accompanied by Adams -- they stopped to visit Thomas Jefferson at Monticello. That meeting resulted in a change in plans. Jefferson, according to Thomas Pinney (A History of Wine in America), was "always on the lookout for interesting company and for agricultural improvements, both of which Mazzei could provide."

Jefferson offered Mazzei 2000 acres near Monticello to seed his wine venture; an offer which he promptly accepted. He settled his workers on the land, built a house thereon (called Colle), and brought in six additional vine farmers (as well as seeds and cuttings) in the summer of 1774. Further, Mazzei raised a total of £2000 (£50/subscriber) to fund the operation of a company focused on the production of wine, oil, silk, and citrus-type plants.

Mazzei began his vinifera venture with 1500 vines planted in late June of 1775. According to Jefferson, that initial vineyard had a southwest exposure and was sited on a stony red soil "resembling extremely the Cote of Burgundy from Chambertin to Montrachet ..." Approximately half of the vines were successfully rooted. Mazzei never produced a vinifera vintage in Virginia.

There had long been a debate in Virginia as to whether native grapes or vitis vinifera had the best chance of success in the colony, a debate which Mazzei leant into by planting both types on his estate. His workers had identified 200 or so wild grape varieties in the woods surrounding the estate and he had examined over 38 varieties himself, making wines from these grapes in both 1775 and 1776. Each worker was given a cask of the completed wine which they subsequently sold to Virginians at 50 shillings per bottle.

Mazzei planted an additional 2000 native vines in the spring of 1776 but by 1778 only 87 of the vines were still viable. The Revolutionary War led to the abandonment of this venture with Mazzei returning to Europe in 1779 to serve as the Virginia agent. 

"Wines of Great Stature" -- as Envisioned by Jefferson

Gianni Zonin charged his GM-Winemaker Luca Paschina to produce wines of the stature envisioned by Thomas Jefferson. But what were those wines? The literature seems to indicate that that depended on whether he was buying the wine or promoting it. 

According to Pinney, "Jefferson was, both in private and public, the great patron and promoter of American wine for Americans." In private he was an inveterate viticultural experimenter and in public "the spokesman for the national importance of establishing wine as the drink of temperate yeomen." Jefferson planted vines at Monticello on and off between 1771 and 1882 and his close-up view of the Mazzei experiments convinced him that native vines were best positioned to undergird a domestic wine industry.

Jefferson was very effusive in his praise of the Scuppernong grape, a variety of Muscadine grown in North Carolina (Subsequent research has shown that this beverage would have been more akin to a cordial than a wine.).

Jefferson's correspondence show him heaping praise on an 1809 Alexander* wine made from grapes grown in the vineyard of Major John Adlum. His friends, according to Jefferson, could not distinguish between the Alexander and a Chambertin from his collection. Jefferson was so enamored of the Alexander that he requested cuttings from Adlum's vineyard in 1810. The cuttings did not handle the trip well.

Jefferson was approached by a Frenchman named Jean David in 1815 regarding a scheme for growing grapes in Virginia. Jefferson advised him to focus on native grapes for the venture. The discourse enticed Jefferson to take another stab at growing grapes and he made a second request to Major Adlum for grape cuttings. In his letter to Adlum Jefferson states: "I am so convinced that our first success will be from a native grape, that I will try no other." Discussuions with David petered out and Jefferson was once again frustrated in his desire to place Monticello at the forefront of a domestic wine industry.

But Jefferson's personal holdings were not similarly limited. Before journeying to France in 1784, Jefferson consumed Madeira and Port but extensive travel through the wine regions of France and Northern Italy, as well as living in Paris, had an effect on the wines that he favored going forward. According to monticello.org, Jefferson "chose to drink and serve the fine lighter wines of France and Italy and ... with the exception of a 'sufficient' quantity of Scuppernong, all the wines on hand in the Monticello cellar at the time of Jefferson's death came from southern France."

With white grapes to include, Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Vermentino, and Viognier, and reds to include Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot, and Nebbiolo, Barboursville Vineyard is definitely producing wines of the stature envisioned by Jefferson (based on his later-life drinking and purchasing habits and his cellar contents) and by Gianni Zonin (due to the good repute of Barboursville Vineyards and the quality of its wines).

*The Alexander grape was a spontaneous hybrid of vinifera and labrusca vine from which the first commercial wines in America were made. The grape was discovered around 1740 by James Alexander in an area where William Penn's gardener had planted vinifera cuttings in 1683. It is probable that Penn's imported European vines had entered into the formation of America's first wine grape by pollinating a native vine (Pinney).

©Wine -- Mise en abyme