‘Fantastic’ wines may result from anxious year for B.C. winemakers

A wine is poured.
Photograph by: Handout, Files

Despite a tense and anxious spring and summer for British Columbia winemakers, the 2011 harvest should result in some good wines, Okanagan vintners say.

“Certainly it was a challenging year, but the wines coming out are fantastic,” said Lindsay Kelm, communications manager at the British Columbia Wine Institute. “The main thing that we’ve heard is that the overall ripeness of the fruit was the best the wineries have seen in a few years, despite the cold weather.”

At Tinhorn Creek Vineyards in Oliver, CEO and winemaker Sandra Oldfield says it was the second-most challenging year she’s been through in 18 years in the business.

“It was late, and late again, and then late again, and then we had some rains when you don’t want it,” Oldfield said, adding that B.C.’s harvest period is already short and if it’s late there is even less time to pick the grapes before the frost hits.

“You always worry if the later-ripening grapes will ever get ripe,” Oldfield said. “Ultimately, everything came in ripe, and everything came in pretty interesting and awesome.”

The harvest was about two weeks behind in 2011, after a stretch of warmer, dry weather in August and September.

The official numbers aren’t in for the quantity of the harvest, but Kelm said early indications are that the overall numbers for B.C.’s $194-million wine industry would be similar to 2010.

At Summerhill Winery in Kelowna chief operations officer Ezra Cipes said it was a very strange year.

“I think it was the first year in memory that we pressed sparking wine cuvée and ice wine in the same day. Sparkling wine is usually pressed at the beginning of the season,” Cipes said.

After the very brief spell of cold in November, the weather in the Okanagan has warmed up, meaning most of the ice wine grapes are still hanging on the vine.

“We had a very small window in November to pick ice wine. We had a huge crew out and we got three acres off in about three hours,” Cipes said. “We’re waiting — the vintners are the only ones in the valley wishing it would be colder, I think.”

To pick grapes for ice wine, the temperature needs to be below minus 8 C.

“You want it to really be that bone-chilling cold, so the grapes can stay cold for a day after they’re picked,” Kelm said, adding that there are more grapes than ever this year waiting for the frost.

“If they do all get used, it will be the largest ice wine harvest ever,” she said.

Despite the worrisome year, Oldfield is promising wine lovers some one-of-a-kind 2011 wines.

“The worry of the winemaker has no reflection on how the grapes think the season is going,” Oldfield said. “In the end they were awesome and we’re really happy with them. I think they have a really unique character this year.”

“They’re all ripe with really great fruit flavours, but definitely a nail biter in the middle of the season.”

Kelm said the 2011 red and white wines should be more balanced.

“It will be the perfect balance of tannin, sugar, fruit ripeness — the overall package,” she said.

Cipes was a little more cautious and said making the best use out of 2011’s grapes would require some creativity.

“We’re in such a crowded market here, there are so many wineries, and only so many customers,” Cipes said. “Really if you have any sort of business sense at all, you will realize that you can only release an excellent wine, you can’t release something that is just okay.”

But the cooler weather did create some interesting surprises for Cipes.

“It was a weird year — some varieties did really well,” he said. “I think the 2011 Cabernet Franc from the Okanagan Valley is going to be absolutely beautiful. I don’t know why it did so well, but the flavour development was just really great.”

There are 204 licensed wineries in B.C., up from 134 in 2007. Sales of B.C. wines increased about six per cent in 2011, over 2010.