As the proverb goes in the Provence region of France, "a day with no wine is a day with no sunshine". For Galileo, "wine is sunlight captive in water", implying that both sunshine and water are indispensable to make, or better to grow, fine wine. Normally, however, wine grapes are not produced in tropical climatic zones; they are usually grown in temperate regions with warm sunny days during the spring and summer. Indeed, in both the northern and southern hemispheres, the majority of the world's vineyards are located between 30 and 50 degrees latitude.
On a tropical coastal desert at the 870-acre Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority on the Kona side of the Big Island of Hawaii, Dr. John P. Craven and his associates of Common Heritage Corporation (CHC) have been able to create the climatic conditions of temperate regions enabling both temperate and tropical plant species to proliferate even in the poorest soil. Basically this has been achieved by pumping cold deep ocean water to the surface and then directing it into plastic pipes embedded in the soil at a particular plant's root depth for the purpose of cooling the ground. The moisture in the warm tropical air is drawn down to the cool soil causing freshwater condensate to form and irrigate the crops. The heavy condensation induced on the surface of the buried irrigation pipes creates microclimates that has made the barren grounds of the CHC Demonstration Site burgeon with more than one hundred varieties of temperate and tropical fruits, vegetables and herbs, all showing surprisingly high sugar and aromatic content and utilizing the temperature differential between root and leaf to mature and grow more rapidly.
This revolutionary new form of agriculture, named "Cold Water" or "Deep Ocean Water (DOW)" agriculture, which combines deep sea cold running through buried pipes and warm, humid tropical air, has enormous potential for developing countries with tropical coastal deserts adjacent to deep ocean. It can make these deserts bloom without pesticides and without an inch of rain and transform them into unique gardens that require only an occasional sprinkling of fresh water to remove salt that may accumulate due to the proximity of the ocean.
The CHC Demonstration Site now consists of a lush lawn and a patch of temperate golf grass (Ecoturf), a fruit, vegetable and herb garden, rose and orchid plots and, interestingly, a small vineyard. The vineyard was initially stocked with the very best wine grape varieties (Merlot, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay) which thrived heartily in an environment devoid of soil but rich in hardened lava rocks. Since vines cannot fruit without first going dormant, the cold deep ocean water was turned off to create an autumn and force dormancy in the vines planted in amended deep soil. A week later the cold water was turned on to create a magnificent spring, dormancy was broken and the vines soon began to put out leaves and flowers and produce large clusters of grapes.
In addition to growing three times faster than anything in the world, the vines showed high yield. Each one produced 50 pounds of grapes. This means that one acre would yield at least 15,000 pounds of grapes three times a year. Thus 45,000 pounds of organic grapes/acre/year would easily be produced under these conditions which provide the grapes with outstanding maturity and depth of flavor and, very importantly, with high sugar levels; indeed, there is about a 30% increase in the glucose content of fruits produced by this remarkable high production new form of agriculture.
Grapes require full sun, warmth and protection from winds. Moreover, the not too sandy or clayey soil should be well drained. One positive feature of cold water agriculture is that it requires no drainage; there a complete absence of wastewater that threatens the environment by contributing run- off pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers as often occurs with traditional irrigation methods. Also, valuable nutrients and minerals are not washed out of the soil into run-off waters; they are continually being dissolved in the freshwater condensate induced on the cool soil, making them more palatable to the plant root cells that absorb them readily.
Although the proof of the pudding is in the eating, in the meantime people can feast their eyes on the abundant large clusters of grapes hanging from the vines shown in the picture taken in the vineyard of the CHC Demonstration site in Kona. These ripe grapes are so appetizing that one is tempted to reach for them to pick and eat them.
Because of the high demand for grapes and grape-derived products, investments made by grape growers to produce year-round an abundance of organic grape varieties on coastal deserts of Haiti having access to deep ocean water will be paying off. The vines will begin to produce fruit in the second or third year. Every year thereafter, during each of the three 110- day harvest cycles made possible by DOW technology applied to agriculture, these growers will be able to pick grapes for making jellies and jams before maturity is reached when the pectin content is greatest; they will also be able to harvest mature grapes for table use or wine-making at the end of the cycle when they are at their sweetest. It will not be difficult for them to find, both locally and internationally, a market for their jellies and jams, especially that they will be made with the very best organic grapes. Similarly, they will have no difficulty selling, all year round, their grapes (all with unusually high sugar content) for table use to local, national and international markets or for wine-making to wineries in temperate countries like Canada.
There is a thriving wine industry in Canada that is built upon the best wine grapes. The country possesses vineyards that are free of disease, have much sunshine during the summer months and often have natural supplies of irrigation water. The high quality grapes coming from these vineyards have enabled Canada to produce outstanding, world-competing wines that have received many awards in most every major wine contest worldwide. It is not surprising that Canadian wines were served to the thirty-four Heads of State participating in the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in April 2001. However, Canadian viticulturists, in addition to having only one crop a year, cannot harvest their grapes until the end of October when spring is late. Furthermore, many wineries have to complete the harvest of their vineyard by buying an equal or bigger quantity of grapes from private viticulturists. Therefore, Canadian wineries would be a good market for the wine grapes produced all year round on the coastal deserts of Haiti.
Finally, since the best wine grapes can be successfully grown along the coast of Haiti using cold water agriculture methods, Haiti is poised to become an important tropical wine producer or premier producer of temperate wines at sea level in the tropics. Wine-making in the country will be greatly facilitated by the fact that the grapes produced, having surprisingly high glucose levels, will be most readily fermented. One of the promising sites for a deep ocean water development project in Haiti is Mole St. Nicolas, a desolate coastal region where, although evaporation takes place, it rarely rains because of the heat. In the 18th century the Acadians, after they were exiled from Canada, first settled in this region but, discouraged by the drought and hostile desert climate, left for Louisiana. Once cold water agriculture methods will have enabled viticulturists to transform such an inhospitable region into a viticultural paradise, it would be ironical indeed if the highest quality grapes produced were to end up on the tables of Acadians living in the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Also, the tropical wines grown there which, according to Galileo, are nothing but "sunlight trapped in water", would bring some tropical sunshine during the long winter to the tables of Acadians and other Canadians alike.
Thus deep ocean water technology applied to agriculture can factually make today's unusable coastal deserts of Haiti burgeon tomorrow with the highest quality crops, including the best wine grapes, leading to the commercial development in Haiti of vineyards and even of wineries capable of producing the finest wines that will share the spotlight with the world- renowned Haitian rum . And when the angelus bells toll at the end of a long day's work in the fields, happy winegrowers, like the farmers depicted in Millet's "The Angelus", will stop their work and bow their heads in prayer to thank God for the benefits derived from the application of cold water agriculture to organic grape
