The 2022 harvest is the first after COVID restrictions have been lifted. I am sure that lifting COVID restrictions was appreciated by BC wineries. We had a cool start to the growing season, followed by mere mm of rain between July and mid-October so I’d guess the weather has had an impact on harvest and fermentation, but we shall see with my interview questions below. Overall, how did the BC grape growing season and harvest fare?
This year I interviewed 3 BC winemakers from across BC’s grape-growing regions to get their take on this year’s vintage as of mid-November 2022. The winemakers I interviewed are:
- Bailey Williamson, Blue Grouse Estate Winery and Vineyard
- Alessandro (Alex) Nel, Fort Berens Estate Winery Ltd
- Val Tait, Gold Hill Winery
Where Are These Wineries?
I colour-coded the pins on this map to match the colours associated with the winemaker names that I have listed above.
My Interview with the BC Winemakers
Thank you to these winemakers for taking the time to answer my interview questions and let my readers find out more about their wineries and the progress of their 2022 grape harvest.
1. Where your vineyards and winery are located?
Bailey: We source 90% of our grapes from the Cowichan Valley.
Alex: Lillooet, British Columbia.
Val: Our winery is located on the boundary of Oliver and Osoyoos on the west side of the valley (3502 Fruitvale Way Oliver BC). Our vineyards are located in Osoyoos, Oliver, Peachland and West Kelowna.
2. When did you start harvesting grapes and when did you finish picking? Was this year early, right on time, or a little later than usual?
Bailey: We started almost a full month later than usual and then it all came in at once just before the atmospheric rivers started.
Alex: Started 12 September and we will end 2 November. It is 14 days later than 2021.
Val: We started harvesting Oct 7 and we finished harvesting Nov 3. The start was 5 weeks later and the finish was a couple of weeks later than normal.
3. What surprised you about this year’s harvest? Did you have a bigger or smaller volume of grapes compared to last year?
Bailey: We were surprised at how well fruit set materialized leading to higher than anticipated volumes, this required judicious bunch thinning.
Alex: We have a larger crop, extremely healthy. I was surprised how quick the sugars climbed in early October with everything being ripe simultaneously. It was a rush to pick with 70% harvested in a 2 week period.
Val: Crop volume was way up, mostly due to larger berry sizes (30-40% bigger berries), the late onset of ripening and the balanced numbers for grape ripeness, in particular total acidity (we often struggle with acid levels in ripe fruit, especially in the South Okanagan).
4. This is the first harvest without COVID restrictions. Did that make this harvest easier? Was finding pickers and other winery staff an issue for harvest?
Bailey: The situation of pickers is challenging, there is not a huge agriculture sector here on the Island so there is consequently not a pool of labour. It is also difficult to staff up in the winery for a 2 month contract, no one wants to find accommodation and settle in for that short a time.
Alex: We had a better turnout of pickers and we could pick around 60% more per day than 2021.
Val: No covid meant we had more socializing at work, especially eating together. I prepare lunch for my team and encourage them to eat together. Also, no lost time with anyone sick so that was great! Labour is very hard to find, especially extra picking support.
5. Is there a grape or style of wine you are producing this year that you are very excited about?
Bailey: It will be our first year producing a sparkling using the 3 Noble grapes of Champagne.
Alex: Too early to say, but I think Cab franc will be phenomenal.
Val: For the first time I am making Pinot Blanc and Gamay. I’m also making a small two barrel lot of traditional buttery chardonnay at the request of one of our team members.
6. How was the growing season? Did you have overly harsh temperatures or lack/or too much rain this year? Did the late Fall forest fire smoke affect you at all?
Bailey: The delayed spring was what held us back from certain physiological milestones in the grape development, without the beautiful autumn it could have been a bust.
Alex: We had a late cold start, summer temps were not too high with 3 days in low 40 degrees with a great dry, warm end to finish. Everything ripened well. No smoke problems.
Val: The growing season was cooler than normal, much wetter than normal and much later than normal. No fire or smoke influences, but the ripening came on very late, so a bit of a nervous wait to get the last of the fruit in.
7. Are you experimenting with anything new with this harvest, like making a sparkling wine, using amphora or skin-fermented white wines?
Bailey: We have 3 new concrete tanks and are excited to see how they treat the wines.
Alex: A lot more white wines on older oak barrels with natural fermentation.
Val: I’m experimenting with an orange wine produced from Gewurztraminer and Chardonnay.
8. What did you or your team do to celebrate the Harvest?
Bailey: This has yet to be determined as harvest is not complete as I write this post, we will do something to celebrate.
Alex: We will probably light a fire and have a few glasses of wine.
Val: Harvest isn’t over yet, so we haven’t had our celebration yet. We are planning to drink our oldest vintages alongside our newest vintages to enjoy the differences and gratitude for getting ripe grapes in such a challenging year!
Thank you to these winemakers for spending the time to tell us about their harvest experiences.
