Was driving in to work yesterday and listening to NPR. They had a very informative show that highlighted … not one, not two, but three developments in Iowa. I was left quite impressed.
Ames, Iowa is home to a Nanovaccine Institute, and they are working to develop a vaccine that can be delivered via inhaler
Iowa has a wine industry? Ok, I had a feeling they might be a few, like maybe, 5 - 10 vineyards. IIRC, the report suggested over 100
Again Ames. A Rare Earth Elements recycling facility/program is ongoing in Iowa
It was NPR’s Science Friday – here’s a URL that has links for each story
The U of MN has developed a number of more-cold-tolerant grape varieties, so this is not a surprise. MN also has a number of vineyards/wineries, which have been around for a while.
@jerryab2 - the surprise in the question is that, with more than 100 wineries, it qualifies as an industry. Like I said, my thoughts on the matter, prior to the story was 5 - 10 wineries. As I showed later with the map, it seems scattered across the whole state. This, say vs California, where it is Napa primarily, plus a few select areas in the state.
Per the actual NPR discussion, prior to Prohibition, Iowa was the sixth largest state for wine production. Then the state stopped producing the product in any large number
Michigan cranks out plenty of plonk too. The route to drive to the lake where my grandparents had a cottage passed several vineyards. Late in the season, the smell of the grapes was very strong.
I can vouch for the riesling white wine from the northern lower Michigan region, it’s my favorite. Reds aren’t the best, but the white wines are pretty darn good. I’m no wine aficionado, I just like what tastes good, so don’t know if the wine “elites” think highly of them. An added plus, locally anyways, is that the wineries are on a beautiful peninsula. I’ve done the wine tasting routine, and that’s fun once in awhile, and I’ve done the let’s bring our own bottle and go watch the sun go down at the scenic overlooks, which is more fun, imo, and tremendously frugal in comparison, lol.
Down here, Lake Michigan keeps the winter temps slightly warmer, and the summer temps slightly cooler, and that is said to be what makes all the difference in the vineyards. Does Lake Superior offer some of the same protection ?
I live near the 45th parallel. Duluth is at 46.47.12 ( approximately ), so it’s on a line about 125 miles north as the crow flies ( and further west, of course ). So that is not all that much further north, so it seems like they’d be able to grow some grapes near the Superior shoreline. But I also know that Winter near Lake Superior is a whole different beast than Winter near Lake Michigan, so it might not aid the growing season.
As an aside, I’ve only been as far as Duluth on the Minnesota Superior shoreline, definitely want to see all of it. The Wisconsin shoreline is awesome, as is the Michigan shoreline. Been about 1/2 way around the north shore in Canada, and that is just beautiful.
Somewhere along the line, I read that sandy soil is favored for grapes. That is something west Michigan has, vs the clay around metro Detroit. Even where I grew up on the west side of Kalamazoo, dig down about 2 feet, and it’s all sand. When I drive to Muskegon on I-96, I notice that, once past Grand Rapids, the ground next to the highway takes on a very sandy color.
As an inveterate oenophile, a number of years ago, I was surprised to find a nice bottle from New Mexico of all places. I then learned that wine is made in all 50 states.
Conditions vary greatly for great wine production but sometimes there are surprising results. As one example, the Virginia wineries have come along a lot in the past 20 years with some great wines produced, particularly with the Cabernet Franc and Viognier varietals. There is still much trial and error involved in finding the right spots for the right grapes to produce great wine, but the science of it all has contributed greatly to it.
