2017 was a complicated and challenging year for BC although wine quality looks promising as local producers affirm in this Okanagan harvest report 2017 written by Julian Park:
The year started with large amounts of snow and cold weather. The snow melt led to floods and excessive vegetative growth that resulted in several wildfires throughout the year. While the climate presented challenges in the region, winemakers have fortunately not expressed any fears of smoke taint or damage and many are reporting one of their best vintages in recent years.
Most vineyards experienced decreased yields of up to 20% compared to an average harvest but the quality of juice was very good.
Rob Westbury. Nagging Doubt Winery, East Kelowna
“This was a challenging year, but we couldn’t have been more pleased with the outcome and quality of fruit we received. The season started slowly as the record snow melted slowly. Then we had to contend with a rainy, overcast spring. We put a huge amount of work into controlling powdery mildew, including several extra sprays and starting shoot and leaf thinning early to ensure we managed disease pressure.
“We had record-high temperatures throughout July and August, but the intense wildfires generated so much smoke that we ended up with the equivalent of more than two weeks of overcast days. In the end, our efforts paid off, and we had a beautiful harvest of clean, ripe fruit, from our early-ripening Siegerrebe through to our early October harvests of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. They’re all tasting great, so far. We can’t wait to pour our first estate-grown wines!”
Robert Thielicke. Lang Vineyards, Naramata
“The vintage started off great in April with an early bud break for us. We also had a minimal amount of rain in June. The remainder of the summer remained hot without rain. In September and October we had cooler temperatures but again without much rain. This was ideal for reaching our desired sugar levels. It also helped to produce great phenolic, perfect acidity & flavourful grapes. In my opinion, aromatic Whites and Rose’s will be the stars of the 2017 vintage.
“It’s always difficult to judge a vintage until it’s bottled and aged. However, I feel this year’s wines will be one of the smoothest we have seen in many years due to the hard work of our growers on the Naramata Bench and winemaking in our cellar.”
Bruno Kelle & Stella Schmidt. Castoro de Oro Estate Winery, Golden Mile, Oliver
“The 2017 growing season started out slower than most previous years, with a very, very rainy spring. We started to get worried as it was behind previous years and we started thinking we were going to need to drop some crop, but then BOOM we had so much sunshine and beautiful heat and no rain from May 16th until October!
“The fires didn’t really affect us, we did overhead irrigate a couple of times just to drag down some of the smoke and to clear the grapes and vines of any potential ash coating. Suddenly, we had our best crop ever. We believe the Vintage 2017 will be our very best so far. The grapes were picked at the ‘exact numbers’ and flavours were very impressive, and our yield was fabulous too.”
Okanagan harvest report and photos by Julian Park
Julian is a Wine Enthusiast who enjoys talking to winemakers and telling stories about the vineyards, winemaking process and the wines. Born in Australia he has travelled through the wine regions of three continents. In 2015, after retiring from a Phoenix based Process Automation Company, he moved to Kelowna and started the BC Wine Trends blog to promote BC wines.
