Restaurants brace for possible B.C. wine shortage

The owner of Lightning Rock Winery is returning to the Okanagan with three tons of grapes picked across the border as a way to boost supply after a damaging year.

“I’m returning with some syrah behind me that we got picked at Mercer Ranch,” Ron Kubek told Global News.

“Mercer ranch is down south of Prosser, Washington, right on the Washington, Oregon border.”

“We lost 100 per cent of our fruit and 97 per cent of all fruit was lost in the Okanagan with the January cold,” Kubek said.

“And so we’ve been forced to replant some of our vineyards.”

1:51 More relief on the way for BC wine industry

The winery lost 60 per cent of the grape crop last year and 99 per cent last year and it will take years to recover.

“Hundreds and hundreds of acres are being ripped out over the next couple of years and going to be replanted,” Michael Kullman with the BC Winegrowers Association said.

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“And when you plant a vine, it takes a minimum of three years to produce crop and then up to five years, a respectable crop.”

The association expects the Okanagan wine supply to begin depleting by mid-2025.

“You’ll see replacements with wineries bringing in fruit from Washington or juice from Ontario or, you know, but not 100 per cent B.C. wine. That will become rarer and rarer as the years go on,” Kullman added.

1:48 Penticton watermain break washes out B.C. winery

The effects of low wine supply are expected to trickle down into the restaurant industry, leading to fewer Okanagan bottles on the menu.

“If we can’t get B.C. wine we’ll go back to say, California,” Ian Tostenson with the British Columbia Food Services and Restaurant Association said.

“Now, inside of that envelope, there’s thousands of listings of what we call spec products in the province. And these are products that are not on B.C. Liquor Distribution Branch or liquor store shelves, but rather they’re available for restaurants.”

In the meantime, restaurants are preparing for what seems to be the inevitable.

“So they’re going to have to start making some plans,” Tostenson added.

“They had five or six months of what they plan to do with their with their beverage program.”