Grape farmers in New York have a big reason to “wine” about this year’s brutal winter.
Upstate vineyards are suffering through an agricultural “disaster” triggered by the vine-freezing cold, the US Department of Agriculture declared on Thursday.
Farmers near the Finger Lakes, for example, are expected to lose between 75 and 90 percent of their crops due to grape “bud injury,” according to an estimate from Cornell Cooperative Extension, an agricultural branch of Cornell University.
“It knocks the living bejesus out of you economically,” said Eileen Farnan, owner of Barrington Cellars near the Finger Lakes.
She added, “We might need to completely replant our vines — it would take four or five years for the buds to grow back.
It would really hurt,” said Farnan, who sells bottles of Riesling at the Union Square farmers’ market in the summer.
“It hasn’t been this bad in about 20 years. When the lake freezes solid, we lose the temperature-moderating effect of the water . . . and buds fall off and shrivel,” she said.
The federal “disaster declaration” could help hundreds of grape growers in 19 upstate counties score federal relief, according to Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, who pushed the USDA to authorize disaster funding assistance.
Farmers will be eligible to apply for federal “emergency loans” to help them recover in Cattaraugus, Cayuga, Chautauqua, Oswego and Yates counties.
Allegany, Cortland, Erie, Jefferson, Lewis, Oneida, Onondaga, Ontario, Schuyler, Seneca, Steuben, Tompkins, Wayne and Wyoming counties are also eligible.
Nobody will know the full effect of the winter’s wrath on New York’s $4.8 billion grape and wine industry until this summer, when grapes are harvested.
Peaches and plum farmers can also apply for federal relief.