Urban Vineyards: Multiplying with multiple benefits

Photo by Photoriel. Vineyards in Switzerland. La ville de Vevey, vue depuis Chardonne, Lavaux, Vaud, Lac Léman (Geneva Lake). Larger image here.

The Wine-Town Nexus of Urban Agriculture: in the Baltimore-Washington DC Metropolitan Area

Jac Smit, AICP
November 21, 2008

Production of wine within the modern city is increasing from Vienna, Austria to Vienna, Virginia.  This form of urban agriculture includes tourism, recreation, gourmet meals and picnics as well as diverse wines.

In 2007, Virginia was declared one of the Top Five new wine travel destinations in the world by Travel and Leisure magazine, the only one in the USA. In urban northern Virginia [Washington DC commuter zone], Loudoun County from 1986 to 2005 was either first or second in population growth amongst all American counties, from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

In 1985 there were six vineyards in Loudoun County. In 2007, Loudoun had 17, producing from over 20 varieties of grapes, and two more will be in operation in the fall of 2008. Urbanization and ‘vineyardization’ are happening in ‘lock-step’.

This is Urban Agriculture at its fullest expression. Loudoun’s vintners plant twice as many vines per yard [meter] of trellis as California vineyards. Thus they sequester more carbon as they produce more per acre [hectare], and they are re-greening the urban landscape.

Loudoun vineyards are predominantly small-scale operator owned and managed. Loudoun vineyards contribute to the local economy through tourism, education and recreation as well as through production. And Loudoun vineyards conserve historic buildings. Tourists stay at historic inns and attend music and theater festivals and relax in a historic civil war hill-and-dale landscape. In 2006, Loudoun County launched a subsidized winery and distribution company which keeps the value-added within the local economy.

As the vineyards activity in Loudoun continues to expand, neighboring counties are joining the trend. Within the withering tobacco farmlands in southern Maryland a 17 member vineyard cooperative became operational in 2005. Its establishment is supported by a tri-county grant program, which splits the cost of new vines with the vintners.

One of the three, St. Mary’s, has established a winery on an abandoned wharf on Chesapeake Bay. In 1980 Maryland and Virginia each had a dozen vineyards. Today Virginia has 94 and Maryland has 30.

There is new knowledge and technology supporting the rush of vineyards coming from the Universities of Virginia and Maryland.  One innovation is ‘Vineyard Electronics’ a trellis-tension-measuring technology”, based on a laptop computer being connected to the trellis. It informs the small-scale vintner as to when to irrigate or thin a crop, schedule a harvest time, and know the number of oak barrels and empty labeled bottles needed for processing.

When planning your vineyard tour consider that Loudoun County has four “Tour Clusters”.

Mosby, Southwest: 1. Willowcroft Farm; 2. Chrysalis [Jazz]; 3., Swedenburg Estate; 4., Boxwood [concerts]; 5. Zephaniah Farm. Potomac,

Northeast: 1. Tarara; 2., Hidden Brook; 3. Lost Creek; 4. Fabbioli Cellars:

Waterford, West-Valley: 1. Corcoran [1750s log cabin], 2. Loudoun Valley., 3. Village. 4. Hiddencroft, 5. Sunset Hills

Loudoun Heights, West-Hills: 1. Doukenie, 2. Hillsborough, 3. Breaux, 4. Notavia, 5. Bluemont,

References

“Loudoun Food + Wine”, 2007, Loudoun Convention and Visitors Assoc. http://vinespot.blogspot.com? Julie Tarara, Washington State Univ.   [The vineyard electronics software developer] www.mwcog.org/environment/green/agriculture/vineyards.asp
  [Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments = mwcog]www.fruit.wsu.edu/grapeweb/cropload.htm? Washington Post, Metro, November 19, 2008 [washpost.com/metro]

See more articles by Jac Smit here.