Rubye Dorosz empties a pail of Viognier grapes that she’s just picked into a bin at Moon Curser Vineyards in a photo taken during last year’s harvest. This year the harvest is earlier because of the warm spring and hot summer. (Richard McGuire file photo)
As this year’s grape harvest gets under way early, 2015 is looking like an excellent year for many varieties of wine, especially the reds.
“It’s shaping up to be a phenomenal harvest,” said Tim Martiniuk, general manager at Stoneboat Vineyards. “It’s all happened earlier than we’ve seen in the 11 years that I’ve been doing this. We’ve never picked as early as we’re going to.”
The warm and early spring and the hot, dry summer has affected the quality of different grapes in different ways, but the early harvest means less risk of frost damage.
“I think we’re going to see a fantastic quality of grapes this year,” said Martiniuk. “Especially in the reds, but in the whites I think we’ll see greater acidity, at least in our vineyards. We’re noticing that the acids are holding in the berries, which is always a good thing.”
“We’ve had a fantastic season,” said Chris Tolley, owner and winemaker at Moon Curser Vineyards. “It looks like it’s going to be a nice vintage.”
Nonetheless, he points out that some wines will do better than others and a few are negatively affected by the hotter and earlier season.
With some white wines, the grapes don’t like the heat and the plants “shut down” when it gets too hot.
“For us it’s Arneis, which is our Italian white variety, but there’s a number of varieties that do that,” said Tolley. “Cab Franc is one that is noted for doing that, for not liking it too, too hot.”
These grapes have openings where they breathe carbon dioxide, but if it gets too hot, they lose moisture in those openings and they close so the plants can’t photosynthesize, Tolley said.
So the plants sit and do nothing.
“That differs variety to variety, but Cab Franc is known for doing that when it gets in the mid-30s,” he said.
In some cases the grapes do well, but the early ripening can change the flavour, he said.
“It depends what you’re shooting for,” said Tolley, noting that with Syrah in the Okanagan there is a black pepper quality to the grape that may change.
“This year we might be devoid of black pepper, or maybe less of it, so that you sort of have a different style of wine,” he said.
So how well wineries do this year will depend on what they grow, Tolley suggests.
“If your subset of all the varieties in your particular winery is small, you might just make out like a bandit if all you did was Merlot,” he said. “But if you are doing Pinot Gris and a kind of under-ripe style, you’re going to have a hard time replicating it this year because it’s so warm.”
Although Moon Curser hadn’t yet started picking when Tolley was interviewed last week, some varieties are almost ready and at some other wineries the picking has started.
He expects most of the grapes will be harvested by the end of September.
Black Hills Estate Winery said it started picking Semillon last week, three weeks earlier than ever in the winery’s 20-year history, and then started picking Sauvignon Blanc.
“I think it’s going to be a fantastic year,” said Steve Wyse, owner and winemaker at Young and Wyse south of Osoyoos. “I’m hoping the reds are going to be beautiful. The whites, we’ll see, but I have great expectations for the whites as well.”
Although Young and Wyse hadn’t started harvesting when Wyse was interviewed last week, he was expecting to be picking Gewürztraminer any day.
“The Gewürztraminer tastes amazing,” said Wyse. “I’m getting really good litchi, orange peel and all those nice Gewürztraminer flavours, so it’s tasting great actually.”
Wyse predicts that “big tough reds” are going to do very well this year.
“Your Cabernet Sauvignon, your Zinfandels and Malbecs are all going to do really well,” said Wyse. “My Cabernet Sauvignon looks healthier than it’s ever been. And same with the Zinfandel. Those varieties just love the dry heat, but you can definitely see some stress in the cooler climate grapes.”
The cooler weather currently should help those grapes recover a bit to finish strongly in September, he added.
While some wineries were initially concerned that heavy smoke from the recent wildfires might affect the grapes, they’ve been reassured that there won’t be a negative impact.
RICHARD McGUIRE
Osoyoos Times
