Background
B.C. wineries were severely impacted by a devastating January 2024 extreme cold event that decimated the 2024 Okanagan and Similkameen Valley wine grape crop. Industry estimates that the January 2024 event caused a 90% crop loss, and 15% of grapevines were destroyed. The province previously announced a $26 million vine replant program and $92.6 million through the Production Insurance and AgriStability program.
The Province of British Columbia announced that BC wineries can now produce BC wines with imported wine grapes and grape juice for the 2024 BC vintage. The temporary support will be effective from April 1, 2025, to March 31, 2026, allowing for a 12-month sales period.
The temporary support will allow wineries to import wine grapes and juice to produce a 2024 vintage. While this will enable a 2024 BC-produced vintage, any wine produced using imported grapes or juice will not be eligible to carry the BC Vintners Quality Alliance (VQA) label. BC wineries will rework labels to ensure transparency and compliance with federal labelling regulations to reflect which wines are produced from imported grapes and juice.
With this background, here is a summary, grouped by sub-region, of where many Okanagan and Similkameen wineries will be sourcing grapes for the 2024 vintage.
Oliver and Osoyoos Wineries
Hester Creek Estate Winery
Since early spring, Hester Creek’s Mark Sheridan has dealt with a grower in Washington’s prized Red Mountain viticultural area.
We had a contract in place and they were holding the grapes for us. I have been down there multiple times and have had input into how they grow the grapes. We have our own section of their vineyard that they have allocated to us. I have full input as to how they are growing the grapes on that section. All the viticultural inputs are being directed by myself.”
“The reason we chose Washington State is because, stylistically, the varietals of grapes are the closest to those we grow here. The wine will be made on the Hester Creek estate, and we will be creating a Columbia Valley collection, clearly labelled as “Columbia Valley.” The wines will be true in style to what our guests know and love from Hester Creek. We polled our customers, and they have clearly told us that they have faith in our brand and will continue to support us. They know the reason we’re getting grapes from the Columbia Valley is so that we can remain economically viable and therefore continue supporting the multitude of local businesses that are directly tied to the success of the Okanagan wine industry.”2 Mark Sheridan
750 tons of grapes have been received, which the winemaking team will process at Hester Creek.
Winemaker’s CUT
“Exciting news from our winery! Due to unexpected climate events in Okanagan, our 2024 vintage will be sourced from the beautiful Yakima Valley in Washington State! We’ve been looking all year and discovered some amazing cooler sites that will help us maintain the same high-quality wine style that you know and love.
We’re already halfway through the process and we couldn’t be more pleased with the results so far. From Syrah to Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Franc to Tempranillo, and everything in between – Yakima Valley is proving to be a fantastic choice for our 2024 vintage.
Keep an eye out for our Elephant Mountain-inspired wines, as well as our signature GSM blends, Gruner Veltliner, Rousanne Marsanne, and Dolcetto.” Michal Mosny
River Stone Estate Winery
“Most of you will have read our vineyard update published earlier this year regarding the devastating affects of the sudden and severe freeze of January 2024. You will be aware of the practical and optimistic outlook that our River Stone team shares. We remain hopeful and confident in the resilience and creativity of the agricultural community affected by climate extremes in the last several years.
This year was spent in deep observation and scrutiny regarding the best path forward for our small winery. We realistically accepted bud-damage (which is a short-term setback compared to longer, more sustained damaged that can arise with injury to older wood) as the best-case scenario but prepared for the worst.
After months of observation and analysis, we now see not only did the freeze impact our entire crop from 2024, but there is large potential for long-term damages across our two vineyard sites. The damage varies by varietal and location, ranging from 40% to 95%, with our Merlot, Syrah, Malbec, Pinot Gris and Gewürztraminer vines being the hardest hit. While our Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Franc fared somewhat better, the overall impact was severe enough to halt all production from our estate this year.
In response, we are taking action to ensure River Stone remains resilient, as we have so often stated before. Depending on the extent of the damage, we are interplanting new vines, replacing entire rows, and even replanting entire vineyard blocks. This careful and strategic process will take time, resources, and meticulous vineyard management in the coming seasons to ensure long-term success.
In the short term, we are sourcing high-quality fruit from reputable growers in Washington State for our white wine portfolio, and we will be relying on our cellared 2020-2022 vintage of red wines to carry us through the next few years. We want to assure you that despite the challenges, we have no intentions to reduce availability and will continue offering competitively priced premium wines. Our goal remains the same: to produce wines that reflect the exceptional quality and style that you have come to expect from River Stone.
As we move through the next several months of vineyard recovery, we remain optimistic that we can utilize a combination of government-funded replant programs, along with our crop insurance to support our efforts. These resources, along with our dedicated team, will help us navigate this difficult period. Most importantly, we are confident that River Stone will continue to thrive and grow, despite the setbacks we’ve faced over the last two years.
During this time, your support means everything to us. Whether it’s purchasing wine, visiting the winery, or simply choosing BC wineries from restaurant wine lists or local liquor store shelves. We have worked hard to maintain the integrity of our wines by sourcing from trusted growers who share our commitment to quality. While our wines maybe labelled differently, we promise that our passion for producing excellent wine has not wavered.
Thank you for being a part of our journey. We remain optimistic about the future and are excited to share the next chapter with you.” Ted Kane, Owner and Winemaker
Kaladen / Okanagan Falls
Black Market Wine Co.
Coyote Canyon Vineyard, Horse Heaven Hills AVA, Washington
“Despite losing our grape crop in all of our vineyards this season, we are pushing ahead with the harvest. We have made some great connections with amazing growers down in Washington State, and are really excited to be working with super premium grapes. We travelled down south last weekend to meet with the farmers and walk the vineyards. Our approach this year is to take advantage of the breadth of varietals grown in southeast Washington state, and to work with grapes we wouldn’t normally have access to up here in the Okanagan. Harvest is just days away from starting and we couldn’t be more excited…it’s going to be a fun one! ” Rob Hammersley3
Noble Ridge Winery
We recently visited Noble Ridge Vineyard & Winery for a family picnic. The estate vineyard has recovered beautifully from the winter cold snap, and vine loss was minimal. The winery has plenty of wine for sale.
“As for most wineries in the Okanagan Valley, our vineyard in Okanagan Falls will not produce a crop this year. We turned around and visited like-minded growers in south Washington to give us an opportunity to make just enough wine this year to keep our cellar crew busy. We found great white grapes in sustainably farmed vineyards and harvest will start by the end of the week!” Benoit Gauthier
Blue Mountain Winery
Followers of Blue Mountain Vineyard & Cellars hardly need a reminder to stock up on the current releases while they are available. Like other Okanagan producers, Blue Mountain suffered major vineyard damage during last January’s freeze. “All of our vineyards were impacted, with some bud damage, but fortunately, they are thriving this season,” writes Christie Mavety, a family member who owns Blue Mountain. “We expect to harvest a tiny crop and will produce less than 4,500 liters this vintage.”4
“I am not surprised that the Mavety family is not importing grapes. In the winery’s entire history, its wines have been made with grapes from the Okanagan Falls estate that they have managed since 1972. Blue Mountain has won a strong reputation for top quality wines with unimpeachable authenticity. It would have been unwise to tamper with that.” John Schreiner
Blasted Church Vineyards
Blasted Church Vineyards is kicking off September with the 2024 grape harvest, accessing quality grapes from Washington State.
In an inaugural collaboration with Prosser’s Andrews Family Vineyards, located in the Horse Heaven Hills AVA, Blasted Church will be able to produce the quality wines they have been known for since 2002. Blasted Church winemaker, Evan Saunders made the 6.5 hour drive to Prosser, Washington to work with the Andrews family regarding picking and harvest decisions. The varieties will include Sauvignon Blanc, Grenache, Pinot Gris, and then Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon.
The grapes for the white wines and rosé will be mechanically harvested at night, sorted, and pressed. The temperature-controlled grape juice will then be shipped to Okanagan Falls for vinification by the Blasted Church winemaking team. Red wine grapes will be hand-harvested and shipped to BC as whole clusters for the team to process in the Blasted Church cellar.
Blasted Church winery and many neighbouring BC wineries find themselves in the same situation: They need to purchase Washington fruit due to the deep freeze that damaged the 2024 crop. Saunders has visited Prosser six times in planning, and when making his regular visits to Prosser, he has seen several of his industry peers. Saunders notes that it has been excellent working with third-generation farmer Jeff Andrews, and he is happy that the grapes are from certified sustainable vineyards.
“It is a peculiar feeling to look out the window in Okanagan Falls at this time of year and see no grapes,” he notes. “But it will be magical for me and my team to start from juice,” he jokes. Saunders has gone through the stress of the paperwork required to bring the juice and grapes in from the US, so it is appreciated to have one easy step.
Lovers of Blasted Church wines can rest assured that delicious, quality wines will continue to be made. In the meantime, the team has ample inventory of current releases to enjoy.
Naramata
La Frenz Winery
Muscat grapes were hand-harvested from Washinton State, straight from the truck to the press.
“As we enter into our 25th harvest at LA FRENZ, we can only reflect on what a bittersweet year it has been. The cold of January 2024 impacted the BC wine industry beyond anyone’s imagination. Our estate vineyards are thankfully all alive but will only produce an estimated crop of 15% of a typical year. We feel fortunate that we are in a position to make a small amount of wines from our own BC grapes but after many discussions of what was best for our team and LA FRENZ, it was clear that our 2024 harvest needed to be supplemented.
After careful consideration we have decided to import a small amount of Muscat, Viognier and Roussanne from Washington. This decision was not made lightly as we are proudly 100% estate grown and are committed to returning to that designation in 2025. However, we are excited for the opportunity to work with premium Washington grapes. Our winemaker, Ross Baker, has visited multiple times to meet growers and select small lot, top quality sites that he feels will produce wines that will sit comfortably alongside our current offerings.
All wines produced from Washington grapes will be clearly labelled as such and bottled separately from our BC wines.” Elise Martin, Operations Manager
Lake Country
Arrowleaf Cellars
“First grapes of the season are coming in. There’s not much but the vines have tried their best and so will we!” Hannah Assistant Winemaker
When we visited the winery in September, they also expected to harvest Riesling from the estate vineyard, but they had no plans to import grapes.
Garnet Valley
Solvero Wines
In late July, Solvero GM and Winemaker Alison Moyes embarked on a wine adventure when she travelled to Washington and Oregon, visiting the best AVA regions in search of premium, boutique-style Chardonnay grapes. Like many wineries, the vines in Solvero vineyards suffered bud damage due to two back-to-back winters featuring very frigid cold snaps. As a result, Alison is planning to source grapes that will be hand-harvested and processed into juice under her direction. She will be present in the US during harvesting and processing to meet Solvero standards.
Grape juice from Chardonnay grapes will then be cold shipped to the winery in Summerland, where it will be fermented as usual. The labelling will accurately reflect the vineyard location and year the grapes were sourced. Making wine from US grapes is a temporary measure to help the Solvero team continue offering wine while the vineyards recover. Moyes says making wine from premium grapes sourced from another region will be fun and interesting.
Similkameen Valley
Orofino Winery
“Given the lack of Similkameen grapes in our vineyards for vintage 2024, we looked south to our neighbours in Washington. We put our boots on and walked through some vineyards to find the right fit for this extraordinary crush. These magical vineyards have allowed us to produce different wines in 2024 from different varietals than we have ever crushed before. It’s going to be interesting, fun and tasty.”
“We have contracted some Marsanne and Roussanne grapes from a vineyard in the Ancient Lakes AVA, just a three-and-a-half-hour drive south of the winery. The AVA is set high above the Columbia River and is known for its cooler sites, and white grapes dominate the region. This is rare in Washington State. 40 year old Chemin Blanc vines are also rare a we are so privileged to have the opportunity make wine from a special block of these vines. The easiest “yes” of the search, and I am so excited to make wine from this special vineyard.”
“The fourth varietal we found was Cinsault – a classic Provencal variety responsible for their beloved Rosé wines. We have contracted a one-acre block from the Naches Heights AVA west of Yakima. Perhaps one of the most unique and beautiful vineyards I have ever been in. It is magic. At 1900 feet it is one of the highest vineyards in Washington, meaning harsh soil, cool climate and concentrated grapes. Phil Cline operates this vineyard and he is responsible for pioneering and developing this AVA. To hear him speak of the 1.5 million year lava flow that created this high elevation AVA, is a masterclass in geology, geography with a touch of old soul hippy mysticism.”
References
- Relief for B.C. wineries protects 2024 vintage, jobs, BC Government News
- BC wineries have green light to use imported grapes in 2024, John Schreiner
- Black Market Wine Co. Newsletter, Rob Hammersley
- Blue Mountain chooses not to import grapes this fall, John Schreiner