Because of this week’s hard freeze, a lot of farmers in the Midwest are hurting.
That includes vineyards along Route 66 in Missouri. Here’s this excerpt by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
Jim Anderson, director of the Missouri Wine and Grape Board, said the state’s wine crop was 90 percent or more destroyed.
Last year, the Missouri grape crop was valued at nearly $3 million, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service.
St. James and Crown Valley wineries, with one-fourth of Missouri’s production of 1,200 acres, each reported $500,000 in damage to their grapes. A few late-harvest reds may be productive, but only in small amounts.
If the state is declared to have suffered 90 percent damage, the state’s 63 wineries would be able to buy 90 percent of their normal production in grapes and juice to make up the shortage caused by the freeze. […]
Wine produced this year, however, such as Norton and Chambourcin, is likely to double in price, up to $40 a bottle. Such a price hike would put Missouri’s best wines at a strong competitive disadvantage with imported and domestic wines, he said.
If it affected St. James, it certainly would have impacted the 4M Farms and Vineyards, which has a nice roadside stand along the Mother Road, and Rosati Winery.
So you’d better stock up on the juice of the grape the next time you’re in town. I don’t drink the stuff, but I may buy an extra grape pie or two.