BC Winemaker’s Harvest 2023 Interview

For the 2023 harvest, many winegrowers reported their earliest start on record due to a hot, sunny summer. What did Wines of British Columbia have to say?

From Wines of British Columbia, “Going into the summer season BC wineries knew they were facing the challenge of a reduced wine grape crop. “A devastating extreme cold event in December 2022 impacted vineyards throughout the Okanagan Valley and Similkameen Valley,” said Miles Prodan, President and CEO, Wine Growers British Columbia. “While each vineyard and winery had a singular experience depending on location, vineyard aspect, and other factors, we were able to quantify the damage overall as a 34 to 56 percent loss in yield for the 2023 vintage. The full picture will become clear once we are able to review final tonnage numbers this December,” said Prodan…Vancouver Island vineyards often experience a different set of weather conditions than their interior counterparts. “We expect good volumes to be picked locally,” said Mark Holford, Rocky Creek Winery. “The extra warm summer is resulting in very high quality, and an early harvest which is always welcome on the island where we are wanting to pick all our grapes before the October rains begin.”winebc.com

Now that it is early December and the wines are all in tanks or barrels, how did the BC grape growing season and harvest fare?

This year I interviewed 4 BC winemakers from across BC’s grape-growing regions to get their take on this year’s vintage as of the end of November 2023.  The winemakers I interviewed are:

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

1. 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?

Blasted Church - Harvest 2023 - team with grapes
Blasted Church – Harvest 2023 – team with grapes

Val: We began harvest Oct 10 and we finished Nov 4. The start was much later than usual.

Bailey: Siegerrebe was first Sept. 7th. We then moved on to some sparkling base, this was a fairly average time based on the last 10 years, Muller Thurgau was last on Oct 13th. The rains were just starting to arrive on mass so we were able to get it all in without having to pick in the rain.

Evan: We brought in our first fruit, Orange Muscat from the east bench of Osoyoos, on August 28th. Our last pick was our estate Cabernet Sauvignon that we harvested on October 13th and 14th. Any time we bring in fruit in August we are well ahead of “normal”. And, to be done bringing in fruit by the middle of October is unheard of! I usually benchmark our estate Cabernet Sauvignon for our last pick, and generally expect to bring it in between Halloween and Remembrance Day. So, we finished up 3 to 4 weeks ahead of the average.

Alex: We started on September 5th with Pinot Noir for Rose and ended on October 19th with Cabernet Franc. This is about 2 weeks earlier than normal.

2. What surprised you about this year’s harvest? Did you have a bigger or smaller volume of grapes compared to last year?

Val: the surprising thing about this harvest was the very low or non-existent yields in our Oliver and Osoyoos vineyards. Our crop volume was significantly lower than last year – we were down by more than 60%

Bailey: Nothing was a particular surprise, everything lined up as one would hope, the phenolic ripeness was good and the sugars were where I would expect them, not too high and not too low, and cool climate acidity.

Evan: The quality has been a great surprise thus far. Vintages that speed through as 2023 did, don’t always have the complete character of a longer growing season. But, the 2023s are pretty spectacular across the board. I think the Merlot is some of the best I have ever been a part of, and for the most part, everything has great varietal character with great balance.

Alex: There were no surprises this year. We had a 60% decrease in our crop as expected. We planned to skip a vintage on some wines to make up for this.

3. How was the growing season? Did you have overly harsh temperatures or lack/or too much rain this year? Did the summer forest fire smoke affect you at all?

Val: The growing season was moderate in temperature and normal for rainfall. No harsh hot temperatures, and we had a dry fall. Forest fire smoke seems to be a feature of every summer, but luckily, we had no local smoke when our grapes were entering veraison (our most susceptible period for adsorption of smoke particles on the surface of wine grapes).

Bailey: Growing season was textbook, the only thing was a drought warning for the Koksilah area, so many of the hay farmers had to shut off the water.

Evan: The growing season started a little late with budbreak lagging behind the average by a few weeks, but from there the entire growing season was a flat out sprint. The temperatures weren’t abnormally hot, we had decent rainfall early in the year and then things dried out completely. It was just a very compressed growing season.

Any time we have fires in the area we are all going to be concerned, but we haven’t found anything concerning in any of our wines at this point.

Alex: Overall, we had a long dry season. Not overly hot with 3 days that barely touched 40 degrees and cooler temperatures leading up to harvest. An elegant season with lower acids. We only had 2 slightly smoky days so we were lucky again.

4. Are you experimenting with anything new with this harvest, like making a sparkling wine, using amphora or skin-fermented white wines?

Blasted Church - team sorting grapes - Harvest 2023
Blasted Church – team sorting grapes – Harvest 2023

Val: We did not do anything new as we had so little fruit to work with. No wines were made under the Gold Hill label as the estate vineyard had no fruit.

Bailey: We are continuing the use of the concrete and amphora, the only thing new this year is we are strictly using the traditional grape varieties for sparkling method now that we have enough supply.

Evan: We always play around in the cellar a bit, and those experiments vary from vintage to vintage, but we dialled back on them this year a bit because of the smaller crop. That being said, we will still have a few fun wines coming from 2023!

Alex: No. We had to keep everything the same to help keep consistency. We did not have the luxury given the limited quantity.

5. What did you find to be the most challenging part of the harvest?

Val: the biggest challenge was getting enough pickers to get the crop off in a timely manner.

Bailey: Making sure we got the pick dates correct.

Evan: It was a tricky vintage logistically. It can be a challenge to adapt the cellar to working with such small amounts of fruit when everything is planned around the more normal tonnages we expect from every block. But, with a lot of planning and creativity, we were able to make everything work.

Alex: Deciding on picking was a challenge this year. Chemical analysis did not match up with flavour profiles. Grapes were tasting and looking phenolic ripe at much lower sugar and acid levels. There were also some uneven ripeness as we expected along with such a small quantity made it difficult as we only had one shot at picking a block this year.

6. What is your favourite thing about harvest time?

Val: Harvest! It always feels like the beginning of a new cycle and I always look forward to how the wines develop in the cellar.

Bailey:  It is the one time a year you get to do it again and try the things you thought about all year.

Evan: I love the excitement of it all. It is a busy, hectic, stressful time, but it is incredibly exciting to have the chance to capture the season through the wines.

Alex: It is always great to see a whole year’s worth of work come together in the winery. All the vineyard decisions and crew management result in phenomenal quality grapes coming in for processing. I enjoy putting the puzzle pieces together to create a great tasting wine that you picture in your head. After all we only get one chance a year!

7. If you could write anything on the back label of the wines for this harvest, what would you say?

Blasted Church winemaker checking barrel -Production-credit-John Adrian-25
Blasted Church winemaker checking barrel -Production-credit-John Adrian-25

Val: We survived!

Bailey: Enjoy the fruits of our labour.

Evan: Small but mighty! While the volumes were down pretty much across the board, the quality is very high.

Alex: Welcome to Canadian winemaking!

8. How does your team de-stress during harvest and at the end of the harvest?

Val: sharing wine and getting warm and dry!

Bailey: Keep it light and make sure everyone has food.

Evan: During harvest it is important to step back a bit and sit down together to eat, have a beer, or even better, all of the above! After harvest, the holidays are always just around the corner, so it is a great opportunity to relax with friends and family, hopefully eat some good food and drink some great wine.

Alex: We did what we always do. Unwind with a traditional South African fire and braai with the whole crew.

Some Thoughts

From the winemakers’ comments, the harvest was quite compressed.  With the cold winter snap, this year there is less volume of grapes, but the grapes are of excellent quality, so we should expect some great tasting wines once they are released.  With this lower volume, I would suggest to BC wine lovers to buy your favourite wines that are currently released and then pick up the new releases once they come out over the next two years as there will be a limited supply.

Thank you to these winemakers for spending the time to tell us about their harvest experiences.

Author: mywinepal
Drink Good Wine. That is my motto and I really want to help you drink good wine. What is good wine? That can be a different thing for each people. Food also loves wine so I also cover food and wine pairings, restaurant reviews, and world travel. Enjoy life with me. MyWinePal was started by Karl Kliparchuk, WSET. I spent many years with the South World Wine Society as the President and then cellar master. I love to travel around the world, visiting wine regions and sharing my passion for food & wine with you. Come live vicariously through me, and enjoy all my recommended wines.