The 2025 BC harvest is shaping up to be one of the most promising in recent memory — a year defined by ideal growing conditions, early ripening, and a renewed sense of optimism across the valley. After the devastating cold events of 2024, vineyards from Oliver to Lillooet are once again alive with activity and bursting with fruit.
Editor’s note (December 2025): This article has been updated to reflect additional post-harvest reporting and winemaker commentary that clarifies how yield outcomes varied by region and production strategy during the 2024 vintage. The update adds context around yield discipline versus over-production, with new insight from Fort Berens in Lillooet.
Winemakers are reporting balanced chemistry, generous yields, and outstanding flavour concentration — a winning combination that could make 2025 a standout vintage for both whites and reds. Across the province, the mood is upbeat: vines have rebounded, cellar crews are working at full pace, and there’s a shared belief that this year marks an actual turning point for BC wine.
Geoffrey Moss and Anthony Gismondi both offer sharp insights on the 2025 harvest — a vintage brimming with promise — and weigh in on the surprising decision to extend the “Crafted in BC” program despite an abundant Okanagan crop this year.1
Yield recovery versus over-yielding
As more post-harvest reporting has emerged, it has become clear that the 2024 vintage did not produce the same outcomes across British Columbia. While parts of the Okanagan experienced heat conditions that allowed for significantly higher tonnage, that was not a province-wide reality. Cooler regions, including Vancouver Island, the Fraser Valley, and Lillooet, did not see the same heat accumulation and therefore faced very different yield dynamics.
In some cases, increased production in 2024 reflected a welcome return to normal estate yields, rather than an aggressive push for volume. Fort Berens in Lillooet is a good example. Winemaker Alex Nel described the vintage as one of the strongest he has seen at the winery, closely comparable to 2022. “We are looking at one of the top vintages I have had at Fort Berens, comparing closely with the 2022 vintage. We had optimal yields for the quality of wines we aim to produce,” he said. Nel also noted that estate fruit returned to roughly 85–90% of normal production, following severely reduced crops of roughly 30% in 2023 and 2024.
That distinction matters. Yield recovery, when aligned with quality objectives, is very different from heat-driven overproduction, which can strain storage, cash flow, and future pricing. As inventories move into 2025, wineries that balanced vineyard discipline with realistic production targets appear better positioned to release wines without resorting to aggressive discounting, while others may still be working through the consequences of excess volume.
Many thanks to the winemakers and wineries who shared their insights for our first BC Harvest 2025 report:
- Vasanti Estate Winery
- Hester Creek Estate Winery
- Martin’s Lane Winery
- Lightning Rock Winery
- Priest Creek Family Estate Winery
- Dirty Laundry Winery
- Township 7 Vineyards & Winery
- La Frenz Winery
- Sunnybrae Vineyards & Winery
- Fort Berens Estate Winery
Okanagan Valley
Vasanti Estate Winery / Davinder Sidhu
It’s been a very good, long, and warm growing season, and like many others in the valley, we’ve been harvesting earlier than usual thanks to the ideal conditions. With larger yields across the region, we made a conscious decision not to overcrop and instead put our focus firmly on premium, quality wines. We did some aggressive thinning this year to ensure concentrated flavour and strong phenolic development, including excellent tannin maturity.
To further balance things, we applied fertilizer later than usual to slow down the quick sugar build-up that can sometimes run ahead of flavour. As a result, we harvested most varietals one to two weeks earlier than normal, and we were very pleased with the balance — pH, TA, YAN, and Brix all came in right where we wanted them.
The wines we’ve fermented so far are showing incredible depth, vibrant flavour, and beautifully structured tannins, and we’re confident 2025 will be an outstanding vintage across all of our wines. This feels like a great bounce back after last year’s devastating freezes, which forced us to replant a lot of Merlot and Syrah. We’ve chosen to replant Syrah, while also expanding our Cabernet Franc program, and we replaced a significant portion of Merlot with Riesling — though we still maintain Merlot as part of our portfolio. It’s especially exciting that this year also marks the introduction of our first Sauvignon Blanc. At this stage, only our Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, and remaining Merlot are still on the vines, and we expect to wrap up by mid-October — a fantastic outcome for what’s shaping up to be a remarkable year.
Here is the link to purchase Vasantini Wines.
Hester Creek Estate Winery / Mark Hopley
We started picking on August 27th. We started with our 2025 Tiamo, which we are happy to be making again. This wine will be a blend of Pinot Gris, Gewürztraminer, and Muscat and should be available in the spring of 2026.
The harvest so far has been surprisingly productive. We are currently approaching 600 tons and are just starting the red varietals.
The vintage seems to be compacted in ripening. We are now seeing cooler nights which is helping maintain more acidity, which has been challenging this year. The warmer nights in late August and mid-September have caused many vineyards to achieve ripeness simultaneously and earlier than normal.
We harvested our Chardonnay 30 days ahead of our 22nd pick on the same vineyard. Flavours are very good, and we have had an unusually dry September.
Starting Oct 2nd, we are picking our old vine Merlot from block 2 of the estate. All of our Rosés have been picked and are fermenting away, both the Rosé Noir and the Rosé Cabernet Franc.
We plan on focusing on Merlot in the coming days and then we will jump back and finish the whites, Viognier and Riesling.
The team is looking forward to sharing the 2025 VQA wines with our customers. We expect the vintage to be ripe in both flavours and phenolics.
Raise a glass to the 2025 vintage — shop Hester Creek wines
Martin’s Lane Winery / Shane Munn
The 2025 Pinot Noir harvest commenced on September 9. A prolonged summer pushed some vineyards to be harvested earlier than ever before. Flavours are ripe. Tannins are fine. The acidity is crisp. This year, the diversity is striking, and the vintage holds incredible promise.
Here is the link for more information on Martin’s Lane Wines.
Lightning Rock Winery/ Ron Kubek & Sébastien Hotte
It’s been a great but challenging year for farmers. A wetter-than-average season meant every viticultural decision was highly time-sensitive, but the long, warm finish brought beautiful ripeness across our vineyards. For us, this ended up being one of the earlier harvests, and it feels especially rewarding to be making wine from our own grapes again.
While there’s a lot of talk about a bountiful crop in the valley, we’ve seen a balanced crop load in our sites, and we’re quite pleased with it. All in all, it’s shaping up to be a very good vintage.
Discover and order Lightning Rock wines directly from the winery.
Priest Creek Family Estate Winery / Jane Sawin
Now the winemaking magic begins!Things are moving right on schedule at Priest Creek, and we couldn’t be happier with how the fruit is coming in. It’s clean, ripe, and full of promise.
The Okanagan really delivered this fall, and we’re feeling confident that the 2025 vintage will be one to remember. That said, with so much incredible fruit available locally, we were surprised — and honestly a bit disheartened — to see borders opened to U.S. grapes this year. It just didn’t feel necessary.1
We’re proud of what’s coming off our vines and can’t wait for you to taste the results when the wines are ready!
Here is where you can shop for your favourite Priest Creek wines.
Dirty Laundry Winery / Mason Spink
The team at Dirty Laundry Vineyard kicked off harvest early this year on September 9 and is now about halfway through the pick. Chardonnay and Pinot Gris were the first varietals to hit the press, and the crop has proven to be large and bountiful across the board. To maintain balance and quality, the crew performed substantial thinning and removed a significant number of secondary clusters to avoid overcropping.
Our estate vines have produced beautiful fruit and look exceptionally healthy, with the season delivering strong aromatics and excellent colour development. The Gewürztraminer is particularly fragrant this year, while Pinot Gris shows vibrant hues and lively flavour. Early reds are displaying a pleasing balance that bodes well for the vintage.
Looking ahead, Dirty Laundry fans can anticipate some exciting releases: a Lambrusco-style sparkling red as part of the limited Winemaker’s Series, a single-varietal Cabernet Franc, and the return of Gamay. This variety earned the winery the #1 spot in the 2024 BC Top 50 Wines.
Check out the Dirty Laundry Wine Portfolio.
Township 7 Vineyards & Winery / Maggie Peek & Mary McDermott
This year’s harvest has brought both surprises and excitement to our team. We’re seeing larger yields than ever before, with fruit arriving earlier and in greater volume across our vineyards. The quality has been strong, showing good natural acidity and vibrant flavour development.
It’s been a whirlwind vintage; everything is coming in early and heavy, which keeps our team on their toes. The biggest challenge this year has been securing enough cooperage to accommodate the abundance of fruit — a great problem to have.
Sparkling wine bases have been particularly impressive. After several lighter crop years, we will be expanding our sparkling program once again. White varietals have shown good yields and excellent freshness, and we’re now turning our focus to the reds, which are coming in beautifully.
Township 7 online wine shop link.
La Frenz Winery / Elise Martin
There are smiles all around for harvest 2025. What an incredible growing season! And what a comeback our vineyards have made. With an earlier than average bud burst, a long warm summer and the above seasonal daytime temperatures we have been enjoying through September, our vines are thriving. Our grapes have been beautifully developing complex flavour, thanks to the diurnal temperature we are experiencing.
Raise a glass to the 2025 vintage — shop La Frenz Winery.
Sunnybrae Vineyards & Winery / James Clark
Despite feeling a little cooler with higher rainfall this year, we observed a similar momentum to the 2021 growing season with budbreak, flowering and fruit set lining up within days across our blocks.
The surprising blast of hot weather kicked harvest off early, and over the course of the next 28 days, we brought in 7 varieties from our estate vineyard and two neighbouring Shuswap growers.
Timing and order were especially important this year to capture windows within the climate’s pace, and we were particularly excited with the results. Extra hang time for Ortega and Kerner brought along beautifully ripe flavours, whilst our half acre of Pinot Noir felt like a special gift of qualities we’ve rarely seen in the Shuswap since planting the block in 2017.
We are thankful for the great weather, which allowed us to harvest without hurdles. The fruit was very clean with minimal challenges from pests and disease, and the rain came in within minutes of dumping our last bin of the vintage. It really couldn’t have been a better return to a 100% BC grown harvest!
Here is where you can check out the Sunnybrae Wine portfolio.
Lillooet
Fort Berens Estate Winery / Alessandro (Alex) Nel
After two very challenging years due to the extreme cold weather, we ended up with
approximately 30% of our normal production levels in 2023 and 2024. Conversely, looking at 2025, this past winter was pretty mild, only going down to about minus 15 degrees Celcius. We had a very dry, warmish season. It started off cool, but then we had 3 weeks of relatively warm weather, which speeded things up. We started picking earlier than ever before, on August 25th with Pinot Noir for our first ever Blanc de Noir Sparkling Wine, which will be released in 2028.
We were expecting a good crop this year, but we didn’t expect it to be as good as it turned out. Our vineyard is very healthy, and we ended up with very healthy grapes. While we aren’t done with harvest yet, we ended up with more grapes than we initially estimated. We are estimating close to a full crop with 85-90% of our normal harvest.
This is an interesting vintage with interesting wines:
- Lower than normal acidity
- Super low pH
- Great sugar levels
- Great ripening
- We are very excited about the wines coming from this harvest.
We are very excited to be back to nearly a full harvest again for 2025, with super healthy grapes, and a super healthy vineyard. We are bringing in more grapes than we initially estimated, so we expect to have a full cellar with some really interesting wines. We are also thrilled that with such a bountiful harvest from our estate vineyard. We’ll be able to really showcase wines from our Lillooet VQA with this 2025 harvest.
Other Notable Points are:
- We did interplant where we had some vineyard death from the last two years.
- Unconnected to the cold snaps, we also removed a 2-acre block of Merlot. This particular location was better suited to white grapes, so this year, we replanted with Chardonnay vines. These new Chardonnay vines did really well this season. We anticipate these grapes coming into production in 3 years.
- Stand-out grapes: both our Riesling and Cabernet Franc are outstanding this harvest.
2025 Challenge
Generally speaking, despite the sugar levels being quite high, the acids were low, and when you looked at the grapes, they weren’t ready to be picked yet as the phenolic ripeness was not fully achieved, such as the seeds turning from green to brown. So, this year, more than in other years, we had to be patient, trust our gut feelings, and rely on tasting to decide on picking dates.
Certified Sustainable Vineyard & Winery
We’re excited to share that Fort Berens has recently been certified as a Sustainable Winegrowing BC vineyard and winery. Since 2022, our team has been working towards this goal with a clear vision: to craft wines in a way that honours the land, supports our community, and ensures long-term sustainability.
Becoming certified with Sustainable Winegrowing BC is an important milestone for us. We are now part of a small group of BC wineries that have received this certification for both our vineyard and our winery. We believe that it’s important to be sustainable throughout our entire organization, from our vineyards all the way to the bottle. We’re proud to announce that our 2025 harvest will be our very first vintage carrying this sustainable designation.
We decided to pursue certification with Sustainable Winegrowing BC because their values align with our own values. True sustainability is about balance. It’s an equilibrium of environmental, economic, and social sustainability. It’s about caring for the environment, supporting our people and community, and ensuring the long-term vitality of our business. This certification process provides us with a framework, accountability, and the tools and resources we need to keep improving in every part of what we do, from vine to wine.
As stewards of this land, we feel a deep responsibility to protect and nurture it for future generations. This designation is not an endpoint but part of our ongoing journey. We are committed to continuously learning, adapting, and seeking better, more sustainable solutions in all areas of our business, so that we can continue to craft wines that reflect our land, our region, our people, our passion, and our values.
Here is the link to purchase wines from Fort Berens Estate Winery.
Reference
- Generous First Impressions, Geoffrey Moss and Anthony Gismondi – A first look at the 2025 vintage in the Okanagan Valley, September 25, 2025.
- MyWinePal – BC Winemakers Harvest 2025 Interview (Karl Kliparchuk)