This is the second in our BC Harvest 2023 series. For the winemaker’s comments in our first article see Winemaker’s Thoughts on BC Harvest 2023.
2023 will be an excellent BC vintage. However, the quantity is far lower than normal. Also, many wineries incurred high labour costs due to the more extensive pruning required to offset the results of the December cold snap.
Buy local and support BC Wine as the BC wineries need your support more than ever!
Many thanks to all the winemakers who have contributed to this article:
- Township 7 Vineyards and Winery
- Singletree Winery
- Noble Ridge Vineyard and Winery
- Black Market Wine Co.
- Ciao Bella Winery
- Vasanti Estate Winery
- Solvero Wines
- Lunessence Winery and Vineyard
Naramata
Mary McDermott | Township 7 Vineyards and Winery
Harvest for the 2023 vintage began for us with the harvest for our seven-star sparkling wines on August 22nd with Viognier from north Oliver. A short six weeks later, on October 6th we wrapped up harvest with Cabernet Franc grapes from south Osoyoos. Of particular note, it was the earliest we have ever completed a harvest, a testament to the unique conditions of this year.
The 2023 season began with challenges posed by an extreme winter cold spell with temperatures plummeting into -20°C territory. While it reduced our yields, the colder temperatures led to fewer clusters on the vines this season. This set the stage for rapid ripening when the warm summer and fall weather graced the south Okanagan this year. Overall, the fruit is well-rounded and perfectly ripened, with good flavours showing in the whites and intense, concentrated reds, that beautifully embody the essence of our various vineyard’s terroir.
Here is the link to purchase Township 7 wines and more information on the winery – Township 7 Summer Wines.
Fraser valley
Debbie and Andrew Etsell |Singletree Winery
What a delightful year for wine production, with lots of sunshine and heat in the Fraser Valley. Some of the benefits of this great weather are low disease and pest pressure. Like many people in the Lower Mainland, we did notice a lot of yellow jackets buzzing around the vineyard in August and September. Harvest for Singletree is usually around the first week of September and right on September 8th, which just happened to be the birthday of the winemaker and a big Harvest Festival in the Vineyard, we started the more condensed than usual harvest. Our last pick is always the Gruner Veltliner about the 31st of October but this year it was the first week of October.
The crop was lower than usual production due to weather but the intensity of flavours in the grapes is amazing this year. For harvest and crush it was all hands on deck of family members and our two new appreciated workers this year from Mexico.
We are so looking forward to the release of this vintage as we were working in the fields and trying the grapes, we could tell it is exceptional. Our Siggy (Siegerrebe) is amazing this year, and we can’t wait for our guests to try this vintage. But the wine Andrew is super excited about is the estate-grown Sauvignon Blanc, very delicious and will be unforgettable.
The big challenge to this vintage is “We wish we had more of this great vintage for all to enjoy.”
Here is the link to purchase Singletree wines and more information on the winery – Singletree Winery for Grüner Veltliner.
Okanagan Falls / Kaleden
Benoît Gauthier | Noble Ridge Vineyard and Winery
The growing season of 2023 was another atypical one, or should I say another typical weird one! As with most wineries around us, we were hit with bud damage from the 2022 cold spell that came before Christmas. Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon were the most affected varietals, while the whites and Pinot Noir were only partially affected. During pruning, we left 4 to 5 buds on the spur, rather than the usual 2, to increase our chances of maintaining a regular crop.
Spring was slightly cooler than normal resulting in a bud break about 10 days later than average. But from the end of May to the end of harvest, Mother Nature brought along consistently warm and dry weather, which really sped up vine development. Véraison started a week earlier than usual, and we harvested our first grapes, Pinot Noir for sparkling wine, on August 29th. Our last pick came in on October 12th with Cabernet Sauvignon, a full two weeks earlier than our previous record.
I also noticed a different trend in grape ripening this year. On a usual hot year with a lower crop load, the grapes will accumulate sugar and lose acidity quite rapidly before phenolic ripeness and flavour development happen. But the opposite happened in our vineyard. That led to what I believe will be one of the highest-quality vintages in a decade. With only one press load left to wrap up this vintage, I am blown away by the flavours and balance of our finished wines.
Please visit the Noble Ridge website to purchase the premium BC wines. Here is more information on the Noble Ridge fall releases.
Rob Hammersley | Black Market Wine Co.
2023 was a vintage I won’t forget, and the challenges started late last fall. Although there’s been lots of chatter about the deep freeze in December, most of the bud damage likely occurred late in the fall with our first dose of cold weather. Many red grapes were still hanging on the vines, and those plants had not yet begun the process of acclimating for winter. With this knowledge, we were able to modify our pruning strategy by leaving a lot more buds to work with and even delaying our final pruning until bud break. This approach created a lot more work in terms of canopy management throughout the season, but we feel it was worth the effort. Yields at our estate vineyard in Kaleden were on par or slightly above the last couple of years, but we were down significantly at our vineyard in Osoyoos.
This was the earliest harvest in my 10 years of wine growing! We started on September 1st and were finished processing all of our grapes before we would normally even start. Our overall production was down about 40% from last year, as many of the vineyards we source from further south in the valley had little to no crop. What’s really unfortunate about the low crop levels this year throughout the valley is that we had an almost perfect season in terms of growing conditions. Despite some elevated pressure from powdery mildew, this was a fantastic vintage that will produce stunning wines.
As farmers, we expect the unexpected and adapt to what gets thrown at us. Mother Nature has not been kind in the past few years, but that’s not something we can control. Our job on the winemaking side is to make the best wines we can, and although there will be a lot less wine available from the 2023 vintage, it will be great!
Here is the link to purchase Black Market Wine and more information on the winery – Black Market Wine Co. releases 2019 Reds & Bubbles
West Kelowna
Roberto P. Fiume | Ciao Bella Winery
Our Italian passion and love of wine runs in our blood and is a deep commitment that has in the past carried us through adversity and that was the case in 2023 which was quite the year for not only us but the entire industry!
Antonio and I started to prune in mid-February and we had the cold snap from December on our minds and we modified our approach to pruning. I’m happy to report that our approach worked and we feel blessed that the vast majority of our vines survived and in fact, produced some exceptional grapes! Our heritage block (directly behind the wineshop picnic area) that I planted in 2000 did not disappoint with grapes of exceptional quality and flavour! Happily, our vineyards across the street which we have been planting since 2020 faired quite well and we observed that the younger plants handled the cold snap better than some of the older plants! This block gave us some much-needed great grapes that added to our harvest!
Ciao Bella WIneries clientele is amazing, loyal and growing and 2023 was a continued year of growth for us. We however were not immune to the fury of nature when a forest fire erupted directly above us approx 5km away and at its closest was 2km away. We were on alert then briefly evacuated and then put back on alert. Chaotic to say the least!
Well, the bright shining spot was our customers! They are amazing and as soon as possible came out to support us, a local family business! Our hearts were touched by this! We are truly blessed!
Once the fires subsided our focus went to how to handle any effects the fire and smoke may have on the grapes. Again we were fortunate and our blessings continued as the prevailing winds blew most of the ash and smoke away from us and during the winemaking process, the smoke showed no signs of negative impact.
In my over 25 years of being a viticulturist, this was the earliest harvest I’ve ever experienced! I’m happy to report the wines are showing great flavours, the Pinot Grigio is bright with a light acidity, the Pinot Rosato is fruity and fun, the Pinozannte is tasting like one of our best yet and the Pinot Nero is in barrels starting its aging process.
Overall Ciao Bella is in a great position and will be providing our customers with the wines they’ve come to enjoy and love. Our fall hours are on our website and you can always purchase online too!
Saluti from the Famiglia Fiume!
Here is the link to purchase Ciao Bella Wine.
Osoyoos
Davinder Sidhu| Vasanti Estate Winery
We just wrapped up our 2023 Harvest yesterday and were reminded of the harsh realities of the winter damage from the cold spell in December 2022. We finished our Merlot yesterday at the Paradise block in Oliver which only yielded about half of what we usually harvest. Our hardest hit was our Syrah in East Bench Osoyoos which we only had about 10-15% of what we typically harvest. Our Sauvignon blanc vines were young and were hit quite hard also yielding very little crop this fall.
On a positive note, the rest of our varieties yielded a respectable crop but at the expense of a very high labour cost. We had decided to do spur pruning after the winter damage with 5-6 long spurs to see which would yield healthy buds and shoots. This process was a lot more labour-intensive as it involved more intensive care at each step of the growing stage. Overall, we are glad that we were able to harvest a decent crop from those vines but it was a long, hard year with a very high labor cost. We are hoping that the conditions this winter will not be as harsh as everyone in the industry could use a mild winter.
Here is the link to purchase Vasanti Wines’ first releases and more information on the winery – Vasanti Wines’ First Release.
Summerland
Alison Moyes | Solvero Wines
Although our yields were slightly lower than forecast, the 2023 vintage was Solvero’s largest vintage to date! Many of our younger vines reached maturity, producing a full crop for the first time and we also partnered with an incredibly talented grower in the Summerland Lakefront region. With David Kozuki’s Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris added to our portfolio we are now producing wine from all three Summerland Sub-GI’s (Lakefront, Bench and Valleys) and we couldn’t be more excited about the potential for these wines.
Warmer September temperatures in combination with relatively low yields/acre gave us no trouble in ripening the fruit. Our harvest was fast and furious with a focus on getting the grapes off the vine at optimal ripeness and maintaining the acid balance. It was luxurious to press off the reds in the warmth and sunshine compared to the freezing temperatures and early snowfall in 2022. My earliest harvest to date, everything was in before Thanksgiving for the first time in my career! The colour and flavour intensity have been exceptional from 2023 and we were careful with skin contact to prevent over-extraction. In a season like this, I’m happy to have a variety of different clones of Pinot Noir, across both warmer and cooler sites, to ultimately craft the final blends.
An early harvest this year has also given the vines an opportunity to build up carbohydrate reserves, boding well for vine hardiness over the winter, and hopefully a more fruitful 2024 vintage across BC.
Here is the link to purchase Solvero Wines and more information on the winery – Solvero Wines Opens with a Splash.
Cameron Walker | Lunessence Winery & Vineyard
The first week of October saw the end of Harvest 2023 at Lunessence. It was an early harvest with small yields – as a result of winter damage to the buds last year the vines were not carrying as much as we typically see (down as much as 50% in some vineyards). But the fruit ripened well and there is good balance in the fruit. A case of ‘quality over quantity’ this year.
As the wines ferment and settle we’re excited to see how they develop, and discover what kinds of wines we’ll have to share with you next Spring!
Here is the link to purchase Lunessence wines and more information on the winery – Lunessence Winery & Vineyard 2020 Releases