New Anna, Ill., lab to separate good grapes from bad

ANNA, Ill. -- The grape picking season is under way in Southern Illinois, and Shawnee Community College is doing something to ensure its quality.

The college has opened a grape juice testing lab at its Anna Extension Center.

The region's wine making is at stake, said Dr. Ben Maragni, coordinator of alternative agriculture at the college.

"You can make bad wine with good grapes, but you can't make good wine with bad grapes," said Maragni, who is also the college's director of Workforce Development.

The lab will conduct testing for sugar levels and acids present in grapes.

"September is the big month for picking grapes," he said. "The harvest should run another month or more, because of various varieties being grown."

The tests are designed to show the natural sugar content, or brix scale, in the grape.

"That's one of the requirements for wine grapes," he said. "The brix, acids and pH contents have to be at good levels to make good wine."

Dr. David Ponce, a Shawnee Community College instructor, a grape grower and winemaker, and lab technician Ellen Conci, will conduct tests for grape growers. Conci, who also has a vineyard, has 10 years experience in lab testing.

A typical Southern Illinois vineyard produces about three tons per acre. "People have reported four and five tons per acre, but this is exceptional."

In the immediate area, about 90 percent of the grapes grown are used to make wine, he said. Only about 9 percent of the crop is sold as fresh fruit, and 1 percent as juice.

Wine experts say a ton of grapes can produce about 150 gallons of wine. At five bottles per gallon, that's about 750 bottles of wine a ton, or about 2,250 bottles an acre.

Ponce urges growers to pick a good selections of grapes. "We need from 50 to 100 grapes for the testing," he said. "We want growers to make a random selection of grapes."

Wineries also do their own testing, but this is the first time a testing lab has been established in the area.

The lab tests are sponsored by the Greater Shawnee Grape Growers Association and Shawnee Community College. Growers from Southeast Missouri and Western Kentucky are also invited to bring their grapes in for testing.

rowen@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 133

The cost of the test is $5 for Greater Shawnee Grape Growers Association members, and $10 for non-members.

No appointment is necessary. Growers are asked bring whole grapes to the lab.

The lab, located in Room A-10 of Oak Hall on the grounds of the Choate Mental Health Center in Anna, is open three days a week -- Monday, Wednesday and Friday -- from 4:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.