Vineyard saw good moisture, little disease pressure and fewer forest fire problems that can affect grape flavour
SUMMERLAND, B.C. — The 2016 grape harvest should have wine-makers smiling throughout the Okanagan Valley.
The early start to vine growth, as well as close to ideal temperatures and moisture conditions, have vineyards looking forward to producing good vintages.
“Honestly, the harvest, from the south end of the valley to the north, has been pretty incredible,” said Jaesin Hammer, media specialist for Mission Hill Winery in Kelowna.
“It’s a wine-maker’s year. Wine-makers are going to be able to play with the wines and do what they like.”
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Mission Hill has five of its own locations from which it gathers grapes, including Osoyoos, Oliver and Naramata in the south and West Kelowna and Kelowna.
“Yields have been fantastic. Got a really, really, really early start and had bud burst at the end of March. By the end of March, we had pretty much full leaves,” said Hammer.
The season’s early start was even earlier at southern vineyards, he added. Rain during flowering put northern vineyards further behind those in the south, but it created no quality or yield issues.
In Summerland, about 50 kilo-metres south of Kelowna, Julian Scholefield of Okanagan Crush Pad’s Winery said his harvest reports describe a similar situation.
“Harvest has been great so far.
“A little bit up, a little bit down, but on average everything is right on par with what we were hoping to bring in.”
In addition to its own wine brands of Haywire and Narrative, Crush Pad offers custom crushing to other vineyards, and viticulture consulting advice to clients. It gathers reports from throughout the Okanagan and leases land in Oliver in addition to its Summerland vineyards.
“The grape quality is good; not a lot of disease pressure,” said Scholefield.
“We’re starting to pull the grapes in earlier, which means that we’re bringing them in when it’s a little bit warmer, a little bit sunnier, you’re not getting the moisture in the air and so that’s where the disease comes from…. The last two years have been really dry.”
Okanagan Crush Pad has focused on organic production for its own brands since 2011.
The decline in wild fires also helped this year’s harvest.
Scholefield said fires from Washington state and near Oliver pushed a lot of smoke into the valley last year.
“They didn’t so much affect the grapes … but it’s a worry. If you have smoke in the valley for a long period of time, that can affect the flavours.”
Hammer said any year in which vineyards “drop fruit” without affecting yields should be considered a good one. That’s when workers prune bunches of grapes off vines and leave them on the ground. It’s done to encourage more concentrated juice in the remaining grapes, which gives wine-makers more flavour potential to work with.
Hammer said the early start to the season also means more time on the vines for the grapes, which will help develop more complex flavours, especially for reds. This year, Mission Hill tied its previous record for the earliest harvest start date of Aug. 26. The original record was set last year.
“You want a bit of extra heat or growing time for the larger reds just because they have the thicker skin.”
For whites, Hammer said the cool nights and moderate temperatures have created very balanced grapes with refreshing and crisp qualities.
