It was a year of replanting in B.C.’s wine country.
At West Kelowna, B.C.’s Quails’ Gate Winery, dozens of acres were replanted this year, part of a massive effort to rebuild what was lost to the cold snap that swept through the Okanagan in January 2024.
“We replanted about 70 acres this year,” said winemaker Rowan Stewart. “It’s one of the biggest, if not the biggest, replantings we’ve ever done as a company.”
Across the Okanagan Valley, wineries faced similar challenges. Some vineyards had to start almost completely from scratch.
“Places in the Okanagan had to replant up to 90 per cent of their vineyards in some cases,” said Jeff Guignard, CEO of Wine Growers BC.
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“Overall, about a third of the region was replanted directly because of that freeze event.”
At Quails’ Gate, there’s cautious optimism. Ninety-nine per cent of the young vines survived the summer, a nearly $3 million investment that should start producing fruit in a few years.
“We lost between 50 and 75 per cent of our vines to the cold,” Stewart said. “Getting everything replanted quickly is really important. You have to balance it with your crew’s capacity, but it still takes about three years before those vineyards are back in production.”
Even with the successful replant, and the vines that managed to survive, the winery remains in recovery mode, just like many others in the valley.
“The fruit that did come off is going to be great, really high quality,” said Stewart. “But we’re still down from previous years, maybe 40 to 50 per cent. The vineyards that were recovering, though, bounced back beautifully.”
Guignard says the industry as a whole is starting to rebound.
“We’re probably about two-thirds of the way back from where we expected to be,” he said. “That’s a really good sign. But we’re doing everything we can to make sure these vineyards are sustainable, they’ve taken a big hit over the last couple of years.”
With younger vines being more resistance to the cold, Quails’ Gate’s focus this winter is on finding new ways to protect the ones that survived, ensuring the region’s vines, and its wines, keep growing stronger.
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https://globalnews.ca/news/11494004/okanagan-wineries-recovery-2024-deep-freeze/
