Okanagan winemakers toast warm, dry start to fall weather

Conditions didn’t look great for Okanagan growers when a soggy summer got underway, but the seemingly delayed start to fall is making a world of difference for vineyardists.

“The weather was pretty miserable in June. So … this beautiful, long, hot fall that we’re having is really a saving grace,” said Eric Von Krosigk, senior winemaker at Frind Estate Winery in West Kelowna.

Von Krosigk said he is expecting “a fantastic vintage” due to the hot dry days.

“It’s all about sun getting into the grapes and then creating the flavors and this is what we need,” he said.

He explained that sun makes for better, more diverse flavour development.

“This really allows us to get that really fine, beautiful phenolic ripeness,” he said.

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That ripeness for a Cab Sav, will offer flavours like plum, cherry and maybe some hints of chocolate, he said. For a Pinot Noir, there will be some strawberry and violet notes.

“That’s what’s happening now,” he said. “We are getting (grapes) not just technically ripe for sugar, but we’re getting them flavour ripe and flavour ripe is the magic.”

David Paterson, winemaker at Tantalus Vineyards in Kelowna, is also seeing the benefits to record-breaking warm days.

“It’s saving the vintage all across the valley,” Paterson said.

“We had an incredibly cool spring and lots of rain, which was good for vine growth but not necessarily for pushing ripeness of grapes towards wine quality. So everyone was a little bit nervous to start September. We really needed this (season) to be like this to get to a quality level.”

Just like Von Krosigk, Paterson’s timeline for the harvest has been pushed back.

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“We may be still a week or a week and a half behind a normal year,” he said. “I don’t think there’s anything that’s really normal anymore. Everything’s so different every year, which is exciting as well.”

The phenolic ripeness and lower sugar mean lower alcohol levels, he added.

“It means the vines are holding the acidity and so the juices are quite balanced with flavor and acid with lower potential alcohol,” he said. “So I think we’re going to make some really exciting wines that don’t need to be 14.5 to 15 per cent alcohol. So you know, another two weeks of this, which is what it’s looking like, we’re in for a really good harvest.”

With multiple days of record-breaking warm weather, the affects vary greatly. While agriculturalists are benefitting from the warmth and sun in the Okanagan, drought and water scarcity is currently a widespread issue in the province, according to the B.C. government.

Much of the west coast, south coast and northeastern areas of B.C. have experienced very little to no rainfall over the past five weeks and to compound issues, more dry weather is forecast.