COLD SENDS WINERIES BACK TO VINEYARD
Winter blast appears to be just right for the final harvest for 2011 vintage
The arctic air that put a grip on B. C. recently proved to be a blessing for the Okanagan’s icewine vintners. After weeks of balmy winter weather, the thermometer finally dipped below - 8 C in the Okanagan, the minimum low for making icewine, allowing winemakers to get back into the vineyard for the final harvest of the 2011 vintage.
With the temperature dipping to - 11 C on the morning of Jan. 12, owners and staff at Tinhorn Creek Vineyard in the southern Okanagan had the window they needed to get out in the early morning cold. They picked 3.6 tonnes of frozen Kerner grapes that had been on the vine for three months waiting for the frigid weather needed to pick them.
“There was no wind, no snow, the fruit was probably in some of the best condition we have seen it in,” said Lindsey White, marketing coordinator at the winery.
White, who is normally officebound, said she and about 15 other staffers at the winery all take part in the icewine harvest. It has to be completed before the temperature climbs, so it’s usually a night or early morning activity.
“I got the call at 10 to six,” she said. “And everybody showed up at seven.”
It only took an hour and a half for the crew to pick the grapes, as hard as little marbles, and get them to the winery, where they were dumped straight into the press. After the harvest, the crew headed inside for hot chocolate while winemaker and owner Sandra Oldham began the winemaking process.
The grapes are too hard to put through a de- stemmer or crusher, Oldham said. They go right into the winery’s bladder press for a long, gentle squeeze.
“They are basically like rocks. If we were to run them through a crusher or de- stemmer, they would probably break the equipment.”
The press is in the outdoor cold and the juice is slowly squeezed out of the grapes, and even then, they are so hard that they do not crack open. The sugary juice drips out of the whole grape.
This year, the juice was 40- per- cent sugar. Oldham has to monitor the temperature the night before picking to ensure that it will be cold enough the next day to meet the regulations established by the B. C. Wine Authority, the wine industry’s regulatory body.
Wineries must first register with the authority, declaring they are going to produce icewine, then detail the equipment they will use, to ensure they have the ability to make a genuine product.
For example, a winery declaring a large harvest, but with only a small press, might not be able to complete the job before the temperature rises in the daylight.
Then they have to phone the authority’s Penticton office on the day they are picking to document that the temperature is low enough.
This year, 26 of B. C.’ s 200plus wineries registered with the authority to make icewine, up from the 23 who made icewine in 2010. When the cold descended on the Okanagan on Jan. 10, the wineries started picking.
Lindsay Kelm, communications manager at the B. C. Wine Institute, said that by Jan. 12, 14 wineries had picked more than 340 tonnes of fruit. She said wineries were reporting grapes had high sugar levels without losing their acidity, the two components that make B. C. icewine such a soughtafter product.
“It looks like a really prime year for icewine,” she said.
At Tinhorn Creek, the winemaker in Oldham balks at the thought of registering her intentions to make wine with a regulatory body but she does it, and fully supports the rationale.
“Because there are so few countries around the world that can make a true, natural icewine, it’s worthwhile having the regs. It ensures that people aren’t throwing grapes into freezers. There are only three countries in the world that can make icewine on a consistent basis: Canada, Austria and Germany.
“There are not a lot of products Canada can say that about.”
She said the grapes were unusually uniform this year. The cool growing season, which caused problems for the fall harvest, appears to be ideal for those grapes winemakers had the courage to leave on the vine.
“Usually you see a certain amount of black rot or mould, and I didn’t see any of that this year,” said Oldham. “You had to really hunt to find a blemished grape and I have never seen that before.
“These grapes didn’t act like it was January; they were acting like it was November. It was such a cold year that everything was prolonged.”
Tinhorn Creek’s 3.6 tonnes of Kerner grapes yielded 1,400 litres of juice, which will make about 500 bottles, each holding 200 millilitres of icewine. The wine will be released on July 1 and will sell in specialty wine stores, restaurants and the winery for less than $ 30 each.