Heading Into Winter - Sass Jordan Style

Incredibly difficult growing grapes on the very fringes of what is considered grape growing territory.  And as far as the world goes, all of Canada is on that fringe. We have really cold winters and short summers. Reminds me of the Sass Jordan song "Going Back Again". She is singing about Montreal, but she also notes the cold, and embracing where your from, singing ...

" They say my home in the land of snow is cold

Let me tell you what it's like

Eleven months of winter baby and

Just one month of pretty thin ice "

Some of my favourite lines from one of my favorite Sass Jordan songs! But it captures a bit of the reality of Canadian winter. We are not glowing with heat or long seasons and for the most part from BC Okanagan to Ontario Niagara we are talking about a 6a/b plant hardiness zone. Exceptions are a very small area in the very south Okanagan as a zone 7 then warming as you head west towards Vancouver to a Zone 9, then near Windsor Ontario at Zone 7, and then the very south tip of Nova Scotia towards Yarmouth which may be a zone 7. Consider that California and the great grape regions in Europe are 2-3 zones warmer than these areas in Canada.

The vast majority of the wine growing area in BC and Ontario is Zone 6a/b. In a 6a hardiness zone you can expect average winter cold in the neighborhood of -20.6c to -23.3c. A 6b hardiness zone is a bit warmer with expected average winter cold in the area of -17.8c to -20.6c.  What is important to recognize is that these are averages.

Given that most of the wine grape growing area in Canada is in a 6a or 6b climate one could then expect that every 5-10 years there will be a winter cold snap that will take the thermometer down to the -25c level or colder. This temperature level is really important to note, because most of the vinifera wine grape varieties grown in Canada (Merlot, Pinot Noir/Gris etc.) are not really cold hardy and are significantly damaged at temperatures below -23c and especially so beyond -25c.

As best we can tell given local historical records and our own climate records taken for nearly two decades, we have a plant hardiness zone of 6a at the vineyard. Over this period our winter lows have ranged between -16c and -27c (last winter) with an overall average in this period of  -21.4c.

The average is important because we expect we are going to get highs and lows that are outside the range of a 6a plant hardiness zone. Our warmest winter puts us into a 7a zone and our coldest puts us into a 5a plant hardiness zone. So from our experience and evaluation of records, pretty much in any 10 year period you can expect 1 or 2 really warm winters (warmer than a 6a zone) and 1 or 2 really cold winters (colder than a 6a zone).

We planted vines in anticipations of those anomalous cold years and looking for those varieties that were at least 1 zone hardier than our location. Hence we grow hybrids such as Marechal Foch, Leon Millot, Marquette, Castel, L'Acadie Blanc, Evangeline and are adding Frontenac Blanc this year. The least hardy of these are Castel and Evangeline but they can still withstand cold to about -25c to -27c.

There are many more hybrid selections grown that can withstand these cold temperatures or colder, but overall they represent a tiny fraction of the wine grape crop grown across Canada. 

Which takes me back again to Montreal - the eastern townships rural area south east of Montreal and a small grape growing area located there. Very cold winters, Zone 4b-5b, but they have thriving vineyards that I've toured there. They embrace their location and make spectacular wine with cold hardy grape varieties suited for those locations. Perhaps a little warmer there than the winter Sass Jordan suggests but nonetheless, extremely hard winters for grape growing but its done well with varieties suitable for those conditions.

Red Grape Harvest

Had a bit later harvest for the red grapes that we took on Oct 11/12th. We were going for the extra hang time to fry to bring up the sugars on the Foch a bit and as of Oct 9 Foch was 19.5 brix. The Leon Millot was in the 20-21brix area. Foch below.

Unfortunately we had a huge rain that day as well and by Oct 10 the Foch was reading 18.5 brix and 18.25 on Oct 11 with many grape bunches swollen and splitting from uptake of water in the soil.

In the end the Leon was about 20 and combined we had approximately 19brix. Not the best numbers..19.5 or even 20brix overall is a target but the quality was good with little to no rot.

Huge thank you to the harvest crew this year with my brother Jim, neighbor Frank Raymond, and new addition - Courtney Feeney of Edgewood!

Some othet positives was the Leon is maturing amd producing more and the St. Croix produced big bunches, many in the 125-150grm size at 19brix, with low acid. St.Croix below.

White Grape Harvest

We harvested the white grapes...primarily L'Acadie Blanc and Evangeline at the end of September 28 and shipped to the winery.

Nice grapes little spoilage but the wasps and rodents took thier tool. We lost alot of low hanging fruit on the L'Acadie to skunks and Marmots and lost some to wasps on the Evangeline.

Overall nice crop and it continues to grow as the vines mature. The collective brix was 20.5 and ph was 3.1. These are great numbers for white wine.

There is a general formula used to guage juice chemistry for white grapes and its the brix x (ph x ph). The target is having the result of this formula be close to 200. Of course this is just a general guage for juice chemistry.

Using our numbers we had 20.5 x (3.1 × 3.1) which results as 197. So pretty close to 200.

Awesome weather and the best family harvest crew!

Worst Wasp Year Ever

 Well its the worst wasp year since we started growing grapes in 2008. 

Wasp on an Evangeline cluster

They love the aromatic fruity grapes and the first ones to rippen are targeted. We use insect netting in the Evangeline as they can get hit but there are so many wasps this year they are finding any little gap in the netting. And once one wasp finds the grapes they tell all thier friends.

Added alot more clips to try to close off some of the gaps but not sure if that will have much effect. ...Few more weeks to go before harvest whites, with reds in early October.

But overall the grapes are comming along...photos below

Marechal Foch (showing ripeness spectrum)

Castel

Leon Millot

L'Acadie

Sovereign Ruby

Veraison - Grapes Ripening

Historically average for the grapes to start ripening is around August 15/16 for us. Earliest is a few days into August and the latest around the 26th of August. 

We are right on target for historical averages and we are seeing the Castel, Leon Millot and Marquette showing colour and a bit on the Marechal Foch as well. Foch is typically a few days behind those others. Photo taken Aug 15 & 16.

Castel

Leon Millot

Marquette

The L'Acadie is looking good (photo below) and Evangeline is ok..it suffered some bud damage this past winter.

Crazy bad year for wasps and leaf hoppers. Been at least 10yrs since wasps were this bad...going to be "fun" at harvest as the wasps love the grapes.

Mid July - Fruit Set

As of July 13 we are seeing good fruit set on the vines with a bit less so on the L'Acadie but overall ok. We had about 3 cool and rainy days right when L'Acadie was in the midst of flowering.

The new vines are growing well and most at top wire. We should get some Marquette this year if all goes well. In the picture below the new vines are in the foreground and old vines in desperate need of thinning are in the background near the house.

Here is the older vines, below, just about to get a good hair cut. These are Marechal Foch and they pretty much send out a primary and secondary shoot at each node. So all secondary come off and we shoot thin the primary ones as well.

This time of year involves shoot thinning and positioning and weed management. While these are not particularly labour intensive it's  great to have help on these so big thank you to Jim.

Flowering has Started

It's been a relatively normal spring for temperatures with May at an average of 13c and June on target to finish the month at around 15.6c-15.8c. That's pretty much centre target for our long term normals and the vines are growing well. 

The new "baby" vines are growing well and can be seen in the distance extending the old rows. Its 3rd year for them and many have already reached the top fruit wire and are expected to have some fruit this year.

This last week we were looking at the weather data and extrapolated when flowering might occur and we figured 60-80% flowering in and around July 1-3rd based on our historical climate-flowering records.

This is good, we really need to be flowering around then, or earlier, as our season generally ends with frost the first week of October.

So in a normal year that gives us a good 90-95 days to get the grapes to ripen to harvest. We often go mid to late October before frost but we count on early October frost. That's taking it to the limit for varieties like Marechal Foch.

As of June 25 we are seeing all varieties at the front end of flowering and with decent weather this week we should be past half way flowering by July 1st. 

A bit of a surprise is how prolific with flowers most of the vines are. With the severe cold last winter I was expecting more primary damage but its not nearly as nasty as what I was expecting. They are all looking really good and hoping for warm weather through flowering and fruitset.

One observation is how many bees are around right now. We have white clover in every second row and the clover is in full bloom and irresistible to the bees. The vineyard is literally buzzing and this times we'll with the vines flowering this next week and we will see what the next few weeks bring...some photos...

Leon Millot

Marquette

Marechal Foch

L'Acadie Blanc

Castel

How Are Your Grapes Doing?

Typical question that comes up in conversation around the vineyard is how are the grapes. So far, so good is the correct answer for us right now..saying "right now" as there are so many stages of growth between now and harvest and potential pitfalls along the way - you cant really speak to a future state.

Last blog I wrote about the side by side difference between the row of Marechal Foch and Leon Millot. The photo below shows the Foch in the fore ground and Leon the next row over. The Foch was showing lots of buds pushing at this time and the Leon showed hardly any buds. Fast forward 2 weeks later and you can see in the next photo that the Leon is really pushing lots of buds now and catching up to the Foch - nice!

The Marquette came throught the winter well and should reach top wire this year and showing at least 2 flower clusters on each shoot. (photo below).

The Marechal Foch rows are looking good so far as well (photo below), most are in 4 leaf stage and on target for a "normal" spring. With average heat in June we should see flowering around the 24th of June.

The L'Acadie, Castel and Evangeline all took a bit of a hit this year. Castel the worst and requires some cordon and trunk re-growth. Having said that, they will all produce to varying degrees this year. 

Lots of snow still in the mountains yet, and really quite stunning this time of the year, with the green valleys - doesn't get old.

Bud Break 2024

 So we have a better picture of how the vines made out through this past winter with the -27c cold snap. With bud break we can really see how they are.

Our Marechal Foch came through fantastic, some die back but overall strong. Leon Millot, sibling vine of Foch, got hit by the cold, probably 50% bud death but its still early to tell. The photo below shows a side by side comparison of Foch row ( fore ground) showing lots of grean leafy buds, and the next row over is Leon Millot with very few buds showing.

The L'Acadie did ok..as predicted the vines located in areas with soil deficientcies got hit hard..really hard with some trunck death. But those vines that entered winter healthy have alot of live buds and look to be very fruitful. Photo below showing buds with 2-3 flower clusters.

Now that danger of frost has passed we are trimming back the vines to a more normal bud count. We will adjust again in June. Phoro below of Foch getting a good hair cut.

Pruning Update: looking good so far

With the deep cold we experienced this past winter...-27c...we were unsure how the vines would be budding out this year, if not trunk damage or how many live buds we would have.

We delayed pruning till we could see whats going on and we are seeing buds push now and while there is damage, in general, things are looking good. Still some time to go to determine if weve lost primary buds and flowers but we will know better by end of May.

For now we can say our commercial varieties look pretty good. We had originally been planning for -25c to -30c lows and chose vines that were supposed to be hardy to those lows.

For Reds...Marechal Foch, Leon Millot, Marquette, GR7 look pretty good so far. Castel is showing the most damage but still not too bad. Foch below;

The L'Acadie and Evangeline look good. Some L'Acadie have damage but thise appear on vines in a few pockets that were stressed due to magnesium deficiency in our sandy soil.  Evangeline is late budding so we still are not 100% sure but again they look good so far as well. L'Acadie below;

So overall things look good so far. Still waiting till they leaf out to confirm primary buds and flowers and get past any late season frosts but if all else is normal we should have a fairly normal crop too. Of interest is the other  non-commercial vines we have that are showing well with low apparent damage and pushing buds after the nasty cold snap.

Reds: Triompe D'Alsace, Colmar Precose Noir, Lucy Kuhlman, St. Croix, Marechal Joffre...all looking good.

Whites: Petite Milo, Vandal Cliche, Ravat 34...also all looking good.

New Season 2024

Snow is all but gone in the fields by the last week in March, very similar to spring 2016. usual trellis work starts, repairing winter damage, upgrading trellising, wires etc. Awesome time of year, as the vineyard and everything around it satrts to come to life..bees and butterflys aready out and about, a few frogs noticed here and there and so early in the season the sky so blue with no smoke.

Typical for this year we are continuing the switch out of the original treated wooden posts for metals posts and earth anchors. Remarkable that several of the treated posted brok off about 6" below the ground level as we worked them back and forth to get them out of the ground.

We have noticed that alot on the wooden posts out here..just how easily they get to rottinging despite the so-called treating they received. We started noticing that in the original test vineayrd that after about 6-7 years the posts were breaking off at ground level. 

So we have moved to metal posts and notwithstanding rusting, they should survive for decades vs the wooden posts. Likewise the earth anchors should have a similar life.

The vines were not budding yet, so we don't as yet have a great guage on the survival rate of the buds on the vines but in all the commercial varieties we cut into the canes were good for the most part. We did som bud cross sectional cutting to see how some made out and every one we cut into was good on all varieties. Thats not a to say there is no bud death but the few we looked at were good.

Adding a bit of Calcium/Magnesium as we spotted areas with vines that that showed deficient last year... typical for sandy soil.

Pruning will start at the end of April as we'll have a better idea of how the vines look at that time and we are going to leave extra bud count in the even of primary bud daamage.

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.

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.