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.
