Pockets of the B.C. wine sector were hit hard this past summer with forest fires while others are enjoying an early harvest season thanks to relatively good weather.
The biggest challenge for many wineries in the Summerland region is how to recover following weekslong evacuations due to wildfires.
The U.S. government's ban on almost all Canadian alcohol is another challenge for some, although B.C. wineries tend not to export much wine.
Wine Growers Canada (WGC) data suggests that last year B.C. wineries largely exported cheaper wines to the U.S.
B.C. wine exports to the U.S. amounted to about 9.2 per cent of B.C. wine production, or 38,662 litres. By dollars, however, those exports only generated $391,627 last year, or about 4.7 per cent of the sector's production value, according to WGC.
Pricier icewine exports to the U.S. account for most of Canada's wine exports across the southern border, but Ontario, by far, produces most of the country's icewine.
Icewine production in B.C. has declined in the past few decades in part because growers have feared mild winters with temperatures that do not fall sufficiently to make icewine, said Sandra Oldfield. She scaled down icewine production in the 2010s, when she was CEO of Tinhorn Creek Vineyards.
Now a business consultant, she said you only make what you can sell and that she does not think demand for icewine is sufficient for many B.C. wineries to produce icewine.
Summerland fires scorch B.C. wine sector
The Bald Range wildfire in early August wreaked havoc on wineries in the Okanagan Valley's Summerland region.
It burned a winemaker's house at Garnet Valley Ranch Winery, said owner Christine Coletta.
"We lost some other buildings, some sheds and pavilions," she said.
Fire burned scrub grass between some of the rows of vines on Coletta's 130-hectare property, where she devotes 18 hectares to growing grapes.
Her vines survived unburned because irrigation staved off the fire, she said.
Coletta said she knew that the grapes would be unusable so, to relieve stress on the vines, she picked them and dropped them on the ground.
"They go back into the hands of Mother Nature or, in this case, hungry bears," she said.
Her winery generated about 6,000 cases of wine last year. This year, there will be none, Coletta said.
Coletta's second winery, a four-hectare property that is half covered in vines, is Haywire Winery—a 10-minute drive further south. It was largely unscathed, as was her house, where three acres of vines are planted, she said.
A few hectares worth of vines in another location are also fine, she said.
That means that from her own production and contracted growers, she will likely be able to produce about 8,000 cases of wine this year, she said.
"Now the challenge for the entire valley is to encourage people to come back to the Okanagan," Coletta said of wine tourists.
Community support, insurance complexity follows fires
Summerland area winery staff and principals returned to their sites to reopen tasting rooms in early September.
They then had to work through insurance-claim complexities while operating without electricity because fire burned power lines.
"It's been a challenging few weeks, but we are back on track now," said winemaker Alison Moyes of Solvero Wines.
"We've had a great deal of support from the local community, and the wine community. It's the silver lining."
She pointed to a fundraising event at Vancouver's Marquis Wine Cellars, where owner John Clerides said his store's customers raised about $12,000 for affected wineries near Summerland.
Cascadia Liquor made an extra-large purchase of Solvero Wines' products for its Vancouver Island stores, Moyes said.
Okanagan liquor stores and restaurants also upped their orders, she said.
Those sales are key because this year's production is decimated.
"We expected to do a harvest of 60 tonnes, and we will be doing one with about six tonnes, so about 10 per cent of what we had planned," Moyes said.
Some Solvera Wines vines burned. Other vines grew grapes now unusable due to smoke taint, Moyes said.
"This region varies dramatically between site to site for who was affected with smoke effects in the grapes, or potential detrimental quality to the wine," she said.
"We were affected so I've opted to source about six tons of grapes from the Fraser Valley."
Winery executives in areas south of Sovero Wines, but in the Summerland area, said smoke has also affected their grapes.
"We may lose production to smoke," said Dirty Laundry Winery general manager Paul Sawler, who is also the chairman of the lobby group Wine Growers British Columbia.
"There are some levels of smoke, and smoke damage, that you can remediate. There's some levels that you just can't remediate."
Technology can help, he said.
All wine branded with the B.C. Vintners Quality Alliance (BCVQA) designation must pass a tasting panel, he said, adding that no wine from grapes affected by smoke will make it to store shelves.
Sawler said he expects his winery's production to drop from 50,000 cases last year to 40,000 cases this year.
"We've got some insurance coverage," Sawler said. "Nobody knows yet what that's exactly going to look like, for business-interruption insurance, but those were three of the busiest weeks of the season that we lost, and we'll never get back."
Over at Lightning Rock Winery, south of Summerland, owner Ron Kubek said an insurance representative told him that business-interruption insurance does not cover a tasting room that he was forced to temporarily close.
"They said, 'You can sell wine online and wholesale,'" he said of the insurance company's response to Kubek for why it would not cover his tasting room's closure for several weeks as a business disruption.
"That was horrible. I found that you have got to read your insurance policy."
He said that smoke effects mean that he will not be able to make any red wine from grapes on his Summerland property.
Last year those grapes provided enough juice for about 2,000 cases of wine.
He is still testing his white grapes to see if it is viable to turn them into wine.
"Insurance covers about 15 cents on the dollar for the fruit value, so we're trying to see if we can make something because it's a better option than making any insurance claim."
Kubek also buys grapes from growers. Some of them have decided to take the insurance money so they are not able to provide him with grapes, he said.
Like Moyes, Kubek praised Cascadia Liquor on Vancouver Island for making large Summerland-area wine purchases.
They bought 100 cases of his wine, he said.
Given that his winery last year produced about 5,000 cases, that was a big order for him, he said.
He expects production this year to be around 1,500 cases of wine.
