by Linda McCandless, Director of Communications, NYS Agricultural Experiment Station, Geneva, NY
NOTE: This story is of particular interest to the fruit/grape/wine press.
Geneva, NY - Nelson J. Shaulis, Professor Emeritus at Cornell
University, is considered one of the fathers of modern viticulture. The
distinguished scientist will receive the American Society for Enology 
and
Viticulture's (ASEV) highest award at the society's annual meeting in San
Diego on July 2. The ASEV Merit Award recognizes outstanding individual
achievement in the field of enology or viticulture and is given to those
persons who have contributed to the field in an outstanding and
distinguished manner.
"I was very pleasantly surprised that the 1997 ASEV Award of Merit was made to me," said Shaulis, who retired from the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, NY, in 1978. "Because the award comes 19 years after my retirement, it obviously reflects on the viticulture research program that was conducted during my pre-retirement career at the Experiment Station. That program involved many other people, including department and Station administration, as well as support specialists at Geneva and the Vineyard Laboratory in Fredonia."
Shaulis, who is as sharp as he is modest, was the viticulturist on two celebrated research teams. One team, consisting of research specialists, Messrs. Herman Amberg and the late Donald Crowe, and Shaulis, developed the Geneva Double Curtain (GDC) training system over 30 years ago. A second team, consisting of Professors E.S. Shepardson, from the ag engineering department at Cornell, the late James Moyer, from the food science department, and Shaulis, worked concurrently to develop a mechanical grape harvester designed for the GDC that has since become the industry standard.
"Dr. Shaulis is being recognized by his peers for his lifelong commitment to viticulture research and teaching," said Robert Pool, who is the current Professor of Viticulture at Cornell. "As a former student and colleague, I know the extent to which he has been responsible for many important advances including research on mineral nutrition, rationalization of pruning, and membership on the Cornell team that developed machines to harvest vineyards."
Shaulis has made lasting and important contributions to the industry. "Dr. Shaulis' concepts have been applied in every major grape producing region of the world, and served as the knowledge base which allowed new world wine growing to emerge as a major factor in international trade during the last 20 years," said Pool.
Industry representatives agree. "Dr. Shaulis' contributions have shaped the modern grape growing industry not just in New York, but throughout the United States," said Jim Trezise, president of the New York State Wine & Grape Foundation. "The Geneva Double Curtain training system is his landmark, but he has made so many contributions, it is impossible to list them all."
Trezise speaks for many, when he said, "Nelson's wonderful knowledge combined with his wonderful personality make him a unique individual."
The Geneva Double Curtain (GDC) system was initiated at the Experiment Station in Geneva in 1960 and grower trials started in 1964. It was the first divided canopy training system. Under this system, vines are trained to bilateral cordon wires located 5-6 feet above the vineyard floor, and the vines are short cane pruned. There is a four-foot division between the two top wires for each row of grapevines, and cordons are established along each wire. Vines in the row are alternated to the left or right cordon wires which gives the celebrated double curtain effect. The system effectively doubles the cordon length per acre of vineyard and is used for vigorous vines of certain varieties of grapes used for processing.
Advantages of the GDC system are many. It increases leaf exposure to sunlight, which results in better fruit and vine maturation, and increases yield. Vineyards managed in this way are better adapted for mechanical harvesting. The GDC is documented in Bulletin 811, dated July 1967, which is still one of the Experiment Station's most frequently requested bulletins, according to Bulletin librarian, Beverly Dunham.
Shaulis' has also conducted important research on factors to consider in siting vineyards, grapevine physiology, vineyard mechanization and management, mineral nutrition, rootstocks, and canopy microclimates. He is an expert in defining attributes of site, growth, canopy, and crop in vineyard management. He also has pioneered the current interest in canopy management by documenting the negative impact of interior leaf shading and by providing new ways of measuring and expressing canopy density.
Shaulis' long and distinguished career began at Penn State, where he graduated with a B.S. in horticulture in 1935, and a M.S. in agronomy in 1937. He received his Ph.D. in Soils from Cornell University in 1941. He served as a Soil Conservationist with the USDA Soil Conservation Service from 1938-44, while he was also the assistant pomologist at Penn State. In 1944, he became Assistant Professor of Pomology at Cornell at the Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva where he served as Professor of Pomology from 1948-67. From 1967-68, he was a Fulbright Scholar in Australia. He became Professor of Viticulture at Cornell from 1967 until 1978, when he retired. He remains very active in the field, and is a treasured sight on the Geneva campus as he walks to his office from his home almost every afternoon.
Shaulis is a Fellow of the American Society of Horticultural Science, and a member of the American Society of Agronomy, the Soil Science Society of American, and an honorary member of the ASEV. He received an Award of Merit from the Society of Wine Educators, and the American Wine Society, and received the award for Outstanding Achievement from the Eastern Section-ASEV, in 1984. In 1990, he was cited for his extraordinary contributions in viticultural research from the New York Wine & Grape Foundation.
The Merit Award has been awarded annually since 1955. Past award winners include Charles Nagel, Robert Mondavi, Charles Fournier, Ernest Gallo, Edmund Rossi, and Elbert Brown, among others.
Click on photograph to view 322 dpi version.
Return to News Page