This is the third and final instalment in our BC Harvest 2021 series. To read about the winemaker’s comments in the previous articles see Winemaker’s thoughts on BC Harvest 2021 and Take 2.
Many thanks to all the winemakers that have contributed to these articles. Here is the list of wineries contributing to this post.
- Hester Creek Estate Winery
- Henricsson Vineyard
- The View Winery
- Scorched Earth Winery
- Peak Cellars
- Harper’s Trail Winery
- Eau Vivre Winery
Despite all the heat and wildfire challenges of the growing season, 2021 is shaping up to be a super vintage. The reds are showing great concentration while the whites are offering beautiful aromatics with balanced acidities.
Oliver
Mark Hopley|Hester Creek Estate Winery
The 2021 Harvest should produce some wines of outstanding quality and varietal character. It was one of the warmest and driest growing seasons on record, with the grapes reaching phenolic ripeness earlier than usual. Our harvest began on August 27th with Pinot Gris and for our Ti Amo (Prosecco style sparkling wine).
We started picking our first reds with Merlot in mid-September with our block 10 Merlot on September 14th at our historic Golden Mile Bench estate vineyard. We finished our last estate reds pick of the block 8 Cabernet Sauvignon from our Golden Mile Bench on October 28, 2021.
Overall, it was a lighter crop with exceptional quality. The lighter fruit set was due to a smaller berry size and the skin ratio to juice was intensified. This resulted in plenty of colour, flavour and aromatics in this vintage. We are truly excited to see the finished wines from the 2021 vintage.
Here is the link to Hester Creek Wines and more information on the winery – Hester Creek for Wine, Accommodation and Dining
Naramata Bench
Peter |Henricsson Vineyard
Early on we had some cold snaps but they did not affect our vines at all. Beautiful weather gave us a good flowering at a normal time, maybe a little bit early. Fruit-set also went well at a normal time of the year.
We expected a really hot year and took precautions. We normally only water for a small number of days in May and maybe June. Then nothing except some years we water a few times during the summer as needed. This year we kept a very big canopy and a lot of clusters. We also watered 3 days per week until veraison. Then we thinned both the canopy and the number of clusters per vine.
We felt that we managed the hot weather with those procedures and on the good side, the hot, dry weather resulted in almost no disease pressure. Our vines looked by far the best since we took over the vineyard in 2013. Of course, it helps that our vines are own-rooted and 30 years old. They dig down very deep for nourishment.
No real smoke problems were experienced as the wildfires were not close to our vineyard. We could see fires south in Okanagan Falls and north by Kelowna but nothing around us. Some small amounts of ash come down for a couple of days but that was early enough (before veraison) and it did not affect our grapes at all.
We started picking Chardonnay on Sept 23, a week earlier than normal. The fruit looked awesome. Easiest time ever at the sorting table. We did our normal “browning of the juice” and then went into barrels a week later. The scientific numbers were great and with very good YAN (Yeast Assimilable Nitrogen), which is important for us since we always use only wild yeast and no yeast nutrients or additions to the wine.
The Pinot Noir was picked on October 3, also about a week earlier than normal. The vines and grapes were so good-looking that they looked like they were fake. Easy picking and sorting and after 7 days of cold soak we added our “Pied du Cuve” and the fermentation went slow and steady and never went over 22 degrees, just the way we want it. We barreled down the Pinot on November 1, and they are already tasting great. Can’t wait to get these babies in the bottle (and my glass).
Overall, a very successful vintage. Quality is looking like the best we’ve seen and quantity is up 20% from last year, however still a little below average.
Kelowna
Kristy French| The View Winery
We saw an early Spring and one of the driest on record. In most varieties, bud burst occurred hastily in the last week of April with flowering in mid-June and fruit set in late June. Summer was extremely hot and dry with smokey conditions, like those we experienced in 2018.
2021 harvest started the earliest we have ever seen in this area, with our first fruit (Riesling / Pinot Noir Sparkling) being picked Sep 13th, followed by our Pinotage and Pinot Noir for our blanc de Noir and rosé. Due to the dry, hot conditions, all the fruit was relatively high in sugar levels. Thanks to the moderating effect of Okanagan Lake and cool evening breezes off the South Slopes of Okanagan Mountain, our signature, brisk acidity level was still maintained.
For The View’s 2021 vintage, you can expect to see aromatic, varietally expressive wines with robust fruit and floral notes complemented by good palate weight, great texture, and ripe tannins with pleasant balancing acidity.
Here is the link to purchase The View Wines and more information on the winery – The View Winery and Pearls Traditional Brut
Peter & Anita |Scorched Earth Winery
2021 Growing season was unlike anything we have experienced. Bud break was early. The vines had grown to the second wire by the May long weekend. We normally harvest the October long weekend. This year harvest began the long weekend in September!
Thanks to great friends and family to help us pull the harvest off. We were not able to find a full team of workers this year. The growing season was certainly reduced time-wise. With all the smoke we decided not to leaf thin at all. Hoping to reduce any ash and smoke damage to the grapes. The vineyard hit a high of 48.5 C and it was hot hot hot.
Thankfully with proper vineyard management, we were able to mitigate smoke damage and even though the crop was smaller than in previous years, it looks like a bountiful harvest with balanced acid and sugar levels!
We are happy to announce something new for the 2021 harvest, a Sparkling Blanc de Noir, set to release in 2024.
Here is the link to purchase Scorched Earth Wines and more information on the winery – Scorched Earth Winery 2020 Releases
Lake Country
Stephanie Stanley | Peak Cellars
The beginning of the season was very dry (quite the opposite of 2020). Timing of bud break and flowering was somewhat normal, perhaps even a week early. We did see a bit of rain in June near the end of flowering, before the scorching heatwave at the end of that month.
The persistent relentless heat and lack of rainfall through July and early August did have a bit of an impact on fruit development. We found that ripening slowed just a little, bringing us back to average timing (so not so bad), but as we began harvesting, we found that cluster weights were below average. Whether this is viewed as negative or positive is completely in the eye of the beholder – smaller clusters mean less fruit and thus less wine but it also means more concentration and excellent fruit/wine quality!
Harvest for our Sparkling program began on September 2 and then everything else followed quickly, allowing us to finish harvesting BEFORE Thanksgiving, which we have never experienced before at the Peak (and I’ve never personally experienced in 20 years!). We are quite excited about the new vintage – the young wines are already expressing amazing character and quality!
Here is the link to purchase Peak Cellars Wines and more information on the winery – Peak Cellars Releases 12 Wines for 2021.
Thompson Valley
Sébastien Hotte | Harper’s Trail Winery
As harvest approaches its end and the wines are slowly moving into élevage we are able to reflect back on the 2021 growing season. Being no different than any year, 2021, offered various viticultural challenges.
Winter was mild with a delayed cold spell affecting only our Cabernet Franc vines. Spring was ideal and a breeze leading us to what we thought would’ve been a joyful season. Then the “heat dome” showed up upon our flowering vines reducing their cluster and berry size. Followed by the now-familiar forest fires.
Fortunately, we weren’t at veraison yet and believe to have avoided the worst of their effects. Late summer to early fall offered some ideal growing conditions to finish off the season right before the cold weather and rain.
Overall 2021 offered a 30% increase in our vineyard production with small but flavourful berries. The reds are showing great concentration while the whites are offering beautiful aromatics with balanced acidities. All of the work could’ve not been done without the continuous effort of our dedicated vineyard team. As we wrap up the growing season and lay our vineyard to rest we are already eagerly awaiting next year’s harvest.
Here is the link to purchase Harper’s Trail Wines and more information on the winery – Harper’s Trail 2021 Releases.
Similkameen Valley
Sukh Bajwa | Eau Vivre Winery
This year’s growing season was interesting, to say the least. The bud break was a couple of weeks early and it was shaping into a very good season. Then in late June the heatwave started and continued for a couple of weeks. The vines had just shut down and there wasn’t any growth during that period. This created smaller grape sizes and lighter clusters, but on the other hand, the grape skin was thicker, and the grapes had concentrated flavours.
In the vineyard, irrigation played an important role to counter the effects of the intense dry heat. Due to all the fires in the province, the Similkameen valley had a lot of smoke which lingered for a few weeks. Luckily, it cleared just before veraison occurred, which is the most susceptible time for the vines to absorb any smoke.
The harvest was a week or so early for us and the fruit came in with naturally high acidity and very concentrated flavours. The yield was down about 15%-30% depending upon the location of the vineyard. Overall, the vintage looks very promising, and we are very excited to work with the fruit in the cellar.
Look out for our 2019 vintage natural ferment Syrah and Malbec, also our 2020 natural skin ferment Viognier.
Here is the link to purchase Eau Vivre Wines and more information on the winery – Eau Vivre Winery – What do you need to know?
