Saturday, March 2, 2024

2024: Not the Warmest Winter we've had - Remember 2016?

So not that much snow this year and its been pretty warm, kinda reminds me of another winter not that long ago. 2016 was one of those nice warm winters, really didnt get that cold at all and not much snow. Was remarkabley warm and by the 3rd week of March we were already working the fields and getting ready to put vines in the ground. See photo below from 2016;

In comparison to 2024, January and February of 2016 were way warmer and I suspect March 2016 will be much warmer as well than March 2024.

Month

2016 Average Temp

2024 Average Temp

January

-0.5c

-3.4c

February

2.3c

0.5c

March

5.8c

?

One of the differences is the snow pack though. We had more snow in 2016 but it was still below normal going into February. was only about 80% of normal in Februay 2016 so pretty close to this year except we are sitting with a bit less snow pack this year than that year.

Could be in for a similar spring to what we had in 2016 and if thats the case, bud break was about 2-3 weeks earlier than normal and we had alot of rain too, especially in June which impacted fruit set. 2016 was also an El Nino event as we are having in 2024, but we will see what comes.



Saturday, February 17, 2024

NO GRAPES FOR 2024? Hang On A Second

Have to say I'm rather happy right now that we decided to go with cold hardy varieties at the vineyard. We tested about 30 different grape varieities, some less hardy than others, some with greater disease resitance than others, some with different growing seasons thatn others. Over the course of testing we had a few cold winters in the -24 to-25 c range and in those parameters we found that Foch, Leon Millot, Castel and Marquette came out quite well after those events. The Petitie Milo, Evangeline and L'Acadie Blanc also came out well and generally speaking these varieties are hardy to -25c to -30c.

We settled on those 4 reds as well as Evangeline and L'Acadie Blanc. Petite Milo was /is an exceptional grape, cold hardy and disease resistant but very much like L'Acadie and no need to run a parrellel variety. - and besides both L'Acadie and Evangeline are Canadian created grapes Eh!  The Leon and Foch in the reds  also run parrellel in flvour etc., but we had planned a particular belending regime that they'd each be useful in their own way.

So here we are comming off the 2022/2023 cold winter event of -26.5c at the vineyard and yet this past year gave us the pretty much the best crop we have ever had. The Castel got knocked back a bit, and the evangeline a bit as well but the other varieties did ok. 

In the winter of 2022/2023, the Okanagan areas especially in the north half got hammered with a cold blast that decimated a significant porportion of the 2023 crop. The vines grown in the majority of the BC vineyards are vinifera and few cant handle anything colder than -23c, so the cold last year was crippling. We had 3 offers to buy our entire crop last year which had never happened before. We also had requests to supply 1000 Marechal Foch vines to a vineyard but by the time the request came in the seaosn for growing cuttings had already passed. Undoubtedly the cold last year caused some terrible damage.

Fast forward to this winter and weve had an even colder event, with a -27.5 c cold event in January 2024, actually it was preceeded by a -26c event the day before. So a couple of cold days like we've never seen. I hear that the crop outlook for the Okanagan is very bleak as they also got hit with similar cold, not exactly -27.5c but in the -24c in places around Oosoyoos to as low as -30c in the Kamloops area and this on the heals of the damage the previous winter.

Most areas of the Okanagan weve been watching are reporting nearly 100% primarly and secondary bud death on the the vines. This means no grapes will be produced this year for those vines in those areas. There is talk of purchasing grapes from out of country or Ontario and making wine and selling it at the wineries to at least have something to sell. 

Think I would pump up the price at the gate a bit for wine given the supply demand parameters but that alone wouldnt off set the gap in wine production or revenue that would occur from a year without grapes. Don't have a short term answer on the grape deficit but given the decimated crops, perhaps some thought should go into expanding acreage of more cold hardy varieties so there is not a 100% crop failure. I'm thinking some must be rethinking the the great grape pull of the 80's -where the cold hardy hybrids that had historically been grown in the Okanagan were pulled out in favour of the worldly vinifera...which are strong on flavour and varietal recognition but weak on hardiness and disease resitance.

Its at that same time that the Summerland research station that had produced 100's of new grape varieties for testing rolled up the carpet on that program as well - why develop hybrids if everyone is going to vinifera. The only vines to make a run for it from the Summerland research station project purge were Sovereign Opal and Sovereign Coronation. Too bad, betting that there were some awesome vines that came out of all of that science that just didnt get the chance..poor timing I guess. We rescued one of those oldies, Sovereign Ruby, from a location on Vancouver Island and have a handfull of those plants still growing in the test vineyard. 

If one goes back even 50 years you can see these types of cold events are not uncommon, usually not back to back in years, but they do happen. Incidently the BC grape crop consists of about 96% vinifera grapes and about 4% hybrids. The later includes the likes of Marechal Foch which has a cold hardiness range to about -30c. 

The BC Wine Grape Council produces detailed acreage reports every year and for the most recent 2022 report it provides a cross referencing of key grapes produced (top 3 reds and top 3 whites) in the BC region as well as other wine regions in Canada and the US. Of particular interest is that within the grapes reported as the top 3 reds in Ontario includes the hybrid, Baco Noir, and of the 3 top whites is included the hybrid, Vidal Blanc. Both Baco and Vidal are hybrids and capable of withstanding exceptional cold, particularly the vidal which is good to about -30c. Too bad that Marechal Foch is not listed as a top 3 red in the BC production table.

We wont know how our crop looks until early April and then at each stage along the way, through flowering and fruit set and then harvest. But first indications will be interesting. We also can get decent production off the secondary buds on Foch and L'Acadie so there is some comfort there as well.

I think we will be ok, but you never really know. We will prune late and see what damage has occured at that time and may even leave extra bud in case of primary damage and hope we have a good crop.

Sunday, December 10, 2023

Nice Fall!

We had an awesome fall with warm weather and really no snow to speak of until early December. 

We stopped counting frost free days in mid October but were well over 170bat that point. Bit of an anomaly for frost free days beyond that.

Took advantage of the great weather to get some much needed trellising done for the new vines.


Some had grown well beyond 7 feet of growth this year ...pretty awesome for 2nd yr vines and we hedged them at 5 feet. We got end posts and trellis post up this fall as well as 3ft trellis wire to keep them sturdy  through the winter.

These are all hanging curtain trellising and if we get a decent winter we should start to get a small crop off these next year. They are expected send canes up to the 5' fruit wire next year and will train them along that wire.






Wednesday, October 11, 2023

Thanksgiving

Taking a moment this thanksgiving to say thank-you to those that helped in the harvest and in various other capacities through the year.

Arrow Lakes Vineyard has grown and we would struggle without the assistance of family and friends. This year was particularly difficult as some of our usual family harvest hands were unable to assist due to timing, which was in itself unusual. We also had to harvest over several weeks with multiple deliveries to the winery. 

But we had neighbors, friends (from as far as Winnipeg, and another from just up the road, and yet another returning helper who had previously lent a hand over 10 years ago) and my brother to fill the gap.

 Wishing everyone a happy thanks giving!




















Wednesday, October 4, 2023

Harvest 2023

We had a great year this year with great production and grape quality. We started harvest 1st week of September with whites and finished with reds on the 30th

The Foch came in at 21-22 brix, the Leon Millot at 22-23 brix - overall great numbers and quality that goes hand in hand with the warmest growing season weve ever had.

St. Croix was a stand out in experimental part of the vineyard comming in at 19.5 brix (usually 17-18 brix) and and 1.5-2 lb per foot of trellis and large juicy grapes (each grape 2× diameter of Marechal Foch) with absolutely no sign of fungus or rot in a year when pretty much all the others varieties showed some impact on these. If we had another 10 days in a normal season this would be a nice grape to grow.

St. Croix below.

Other than that some of brix on the reds came in as follows for harvest of Sept 30 (unless otherwise noted below). Note that we received 1.5 inches of rain on Sept 28 which swelled the grapes, splitting some and also had a very small impact on brix.

Marechal Foch 21.5 

Leon Millot 23 

Castel 25 (Sept 19)

Triompe 22

Lucy Kulhman 22

Marechal Joffre 21

Colmar Precose Noir 24

L'Acadie 22.5 (Sep 19)

Evangeline 19.5 (Sept 7)

Ravat 34 18 (Sept 19)

Petite Milo 22 (Sept 19)

Vandal Cliche 18 (Sept 19)

Foch below...










Saturday, September 9, 2023

Sepetmber Brix

Every year we check the sugars (brix) of the grapes in the first weekend in September, generally somewhere around the 8th-10th. This allows us to estimate when the harvest might start and check on the condition of the grapes, make the nets are solid and keeping the critters out and see if there is any issues of rot.

This year is an unusual year in that everything is so far ahead. So much so that harvest started in the first week of September exactly when we would be normally be making estimates on when harvest may start.

So the Evangeline was harvested at 19 brix. Other grapes are not far behind and many could be harvested now. We needed to net those ones earlier than we did as the birds had already taken alot of them. Here are the numbers for Sept 9.

Marechal Foch 17.8 

Leon Millot 20

Castel 20

Matechal Joffre 20

Lucy Kuhlman 20

Triompe D'Alsace 18.5

Colmar Precose Noir 19

St. Croix 15


L'Acadie Blanc 18.5

Vandal Cliche 17.5

Sovereign Ruby 20

Ravat 34 16.5

Foch below,


Castel below,


L'Acadie Blanc




Thursday, August 24, 2023

August 20 - Big Rain and Way Ahead

 So we are about 7-10 days ahead of normal this year with most of the grapes fully turned and accumulating sugars. 

The Evangeline is furthest ahead as usual and most are quite sweet already. Our 1 vine of Siegerrebe and the grapes on that one are about the same level of ripeness and bith of these are very early varieties. We can pick these in early September this year.

Our Marechal Joffre, Colmar Precose Noir and Lucy Kulhman are all fully turned, dark and getting sweet. Next in the ripeness parade is Leon Millot and Castel followed by the Marechal Foch.

We are all netted up but the birds had already been enjoying the buffet up until now.

We have lucked out with the rain..getting and inch or so around August 9th and then 2.5 inches around August 20/21st. The recent big rains resulted in a bit of splitting on some L'Acadie.

Interesting is the fungal pressure this year. More than any other years and the Evangeline getting hit the hardest of them all but overall the vines are doing good in this respect.

Photos below...Leon Millot followed by Foch and L'Acadie showing some splitting from the rains.











Friday, August 11, 2023

August 9 2023

So as of August 9th the grapes are looking good..and just got about 1 inch of rain the past few days..just in time too as the vines were getting a bit stressed.

The first evidence of veraison was about August 1 and reds started. The evangeline are softening and  sweetening up and good colour development on all the reds. We are about 7-10 days early.

Evangeline

Foch

Leon Millot 

L'acadie Blanc


Wednesday, August 9, 2023

Early is the Word, July 19

 So here we are July 19th and we are approaching bunch closure on the Foch. This is our benchmark as all of the other varieties are earliers if not a few days then a week. Nice clusters and we can expect some colour on them in the next week or so which will put us very early for veraison.



This goes hand in hand with the extremely earlier bud break and flowering, not to mention big heat in July so far. The down side is there ahas been no reain and no rain in the long range forcast. We'll be getting some water to the vines shortly so the vines don't move into a streesed position, but overall things are looking good.


Tuesday, July 4, 2023

Early Summer - Big Growth

We are about 10-14 days ahead of normal and the grapes are looking great. We spent the last few days clearing out the late canes and secondary buds that are just flowering now.






The grapes are looking good overall and most varieties have had good fruit set. The whites... l'acadie and Evangeline ...flowered later than the reds and just when we had a week of cooler and rainy days. 

That kind of weather is not the best for flowering and the clusters are not as well filled but still they are pretty good overall.

Vines are healthy the new vines planted this spring are doing good and the vines from last year are doing great. 

Good start to the season so far.