Andrius Diliautas, Lithuania

Andrius Diliautas showed pictures from the first commercial vineyard in Lithuania...

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SLIDE 1

Introduction

SLIDE 2

Lithuania has a climate mid-way between maritime and continental. The weather is changeable, with mild, wet summers and cold winters. Rainfall is spread throughout the year, but more rain tends to fall on the coast. Summer is the wettest season. Average rainfall during summertime is 60-80 mm/month. Cloudy skies are common. Though Lithuania is very small country, just 300 km from border to border, the climate in the western part and eastern part differs quite a lot. Here on the picture you can see even 10 climate subzones in which LT is diveded. Simply speaking - eastern LT has more continental climate. The most favourable zone for grape growing is zone 7. Espacially the south slopes of Nemunas.

 

SLIDE 3

 

What let us grow grapes in such Northern geographical latitude? The Gulf stream of course. In Lithuania the average air temperature in January is almost 10 degrees higher than the average temperature of Middle Russia which belongs to our geographical latitude.

 

SLIDE 4

 

Some facts about the climate:

Yearly mena temperature is only 6.2° C. But it is rising during last decades. Simply speaking

17-25 °C (~70 F) is frequent at summer day and 14 °C at night.

The more close to the sea – the more milder are winters. The absolute sum of active temperatures above

10° C is from 2000 –2200 in the North-West to 2300-2500 in the South-East and South.

Average length of the grape growing season is 130-140 days only.

Extreme temperatures: Maх temp. + 37,5°C in 1994-07-30, Zarasai. Min temp. - 42,9 °C in 1956-02-01, Utena.

 

SLIDE 5

Just a joke.. J

 

SLIDE 6

Winters are cold in Lithuania, -20 ° C occur almost every winter. In the seaside average minimal temperature is above -20 ° C and in the East - -25 ° C - -28 ° C (-18,4 F) Late spring frosts are also a problem for grape growing in Lithuania. Average latest spring frost in the Vilnius area is 5 of May. The average burdburst date for the most of varieties is 1-5 of May, but some (Rondo for example) starts earlier.

 

SLIDE 7

It‘s a curve of the mean yearly temperatures of Lithuania since 1778.

 

SLIDE 8

These are some facts about scientific predictions of climate change in Lithuania using different models made in Vilnius university. Some facts are promising for the grape growing.

 

SLIDE 9

There are no official written evidences about grape growing during middle ages in Lithuania. Only in XVIII-XIX centuries some nobelmans started to grow grapes in their estates to make an impression on their guests probabely.

 

SLIDE 10

Here you can see varieties on trial in Kaunas botanical garden, planted in 1931-1937. The marked ones have survived at least until 1958. Nowadays the biggest official collection is in Vilnius botanical garden where they have 111 varieties and 10 species of grapes. Of course some hobby growers have even more.

 

SLIDE 11

Though we are souther than our neigbour – Latvia, we don‘t have so much grape breeders and enthusiasts as they do. The most known is Antanas Gailiunas, who ahve bred some interesting varieties. Unfortunately pedigree is uknown. But all of them has V. Labrusca in their pedigree and have mild foxy flavour. The good thing about them is that they are extremely early and quite disease resistant even in the wet climate.

SLIDE 12

Only recentely there were established 2 associations. One is dedicated to grape growing and the other to wine making.

 

SLIDE 13

The first commercial vineyard with the help of e-sadzonka.pl were planted last year in the west part of Lithuania, near Plunge. Vinyeard is on the south slope. Owners plan it to be organic. They are going sell the grapes as dessert grapes and use them for the organic juice production until wine making will be legalised in LT.

 

SLIDE 14

Both growing in the greenhouses and outdoors are getting popular in Lithuania recentely. The difference in ripening is 3-4 weeks.

 

SLIDE 15

Most of the varieties need low training as we cover our vines for winter. That helps grapes ripen a little bit earlier as well. I use low cordon or „Guyot“ (without a trunk). „Fan“ training system is also very popular.

 

SLIDE 16

Materials used for the protection of vines in winter are: soil, straw, branches of Christmas tree (most popular, but works good on snowy winters only) and different foils.

 

SLIDE 17

Here you can see the table grapes varieties which were the most popular during last 2 decades and the ones which getting popular now.

 

SLIDE 18

Pictures of table grapes: Liepsna, Fanny, Arkadia (on the top from left to right) and Supaga, Muscat Bleu and Galanth (below).

 

SLIDE 19

Until recent the most popular variety used for a wine were „Ivanausko rastinuke“ – a vine founded by prof. Ivanauskas which is likely „Alpha“ or „Beta“ or a seedling of one of those. Of course you can‘t make a good wine from grapes with the 16Brix and 15-20 g/l acidity, plus foxy-grassy taste. Thankfully after we got independed, we got also a possibilty to import some new varieties. The most promising variety so far is Solaris. As our wine experts say – to find even 1 variety suitable for our climate would be great success.

 

SLIDE 20

Pictures of wine varieties: Regent, Rondo, Seyval blanc (Top, from left to right) and Solaris (below).

 

SLIDE 21-22

Measurements of some of varieties I grow in my vinyeard in (Magunai), which is located on the eastern border of Lithuania (4 km to Belorus). Almost all varieties are grafted on SO4 rootstock, soil type: clay and sandy-clay, ~15 degrees south slope, average age of vines – 3 years.

 

SLIDE 23

Winemaking has no great traditions in LT. Mead and beer were our national drinks for ages. The most popular is making a wine from black currants. We have only 2 legal winemakers in Lithuania. One is making sparkling wines from the grapes grown in West Europe and the other on is making a „wine“ from fruits and berries.

 

SLIDE 24

Since National Association of Winemakers were establised in 2006, amateur winegrowers got a possibilty to leave their basements and meet each other, share their experience. They also have started their way of legalisation of winemaking in LT. At the moment winemaking is legal only for self-consumption. Most of the amateur winemakers produce a „wine“ from different kind of berries, fruits and even vegetables and some other things. But a grape wine is also getting more and more popular as new varieties were planted recentely.