Destruction of grape crop means a pivot for Okanagan Wine Festival
Okanagan Wine Festival is going to be a bit different this year due to the damage done to harvests by the winter’s cold snap, but organizers say it’s still going to have a lot to offer.
The cold snap earlier this year damaged most of the grapes and vines in local vineyards leaving wineries scrambling for juice. The government has allowed wineries to make wine from grapes and grape juice from out of province, they just won’t be labelled or marketed as B.C. products.
It’s a wine festival, not a grape festival, said Okanagan Wine Festival general manager Kimberly Hundertmark.
“The landscape of the industry is going to be a little bit different this year. We're going to be talking about what the winemakers are doing in light of the current circumstances, and where they're harvesting their grapes from outside of British Columbia,” Hundertmark said.
There'll still be wine from 2021 onwards, but attendees won’t smell the same scent of grapes in the air, she said.
READ MORE: BC changes rules for VQA wines in effort to save wineries, jobs after grape freeze
“Usually part of the excitement around the festival is the whole smell of grapes in the air and seeing the winemakers busy out on their crush pads. That's going to be a little bit different this year,” Hundertmark said.
This time around the festival is also celebrating ciders, spirits and other beverages made from other local crops this year.
“It's changing up the way the event has been in the past where it's been squarely a wine event,” she said. “There's also ciders and craft beers and craft distilleries here that are producing really incredible beverages from local products.”
The CROPPED event is being revived this year at Revelry Food and Music Hub in downtown Kelowna on Oct. 25, with various beverages, food and music. The anticipated TASTE series, where wineries match their best creations with meals at local restaurants for a limited and unique pairing, is going ahead as usual.
“We really are trying to celebrate all that is local and all that is BC,” Hundertmark said.
She's optimistic the Okanagan wine industry will stay strong even if there's another tough winter.
“I have been in the wine industry for 30 years, and I experienced this before. The wineries are still standing. They're still busy, busy, busier than ever. It really is finding solutions to sort of plug that gap when it happens,” she said.
The government’s allowance of out-of-province grapes has created a foundation of security for wine makers.
“We have a solution in place. And we'll be able to look back at this year as sort of the building blocks for those times where mother nature plays a trick on us,” she said.
The Okanagan Wine Festival runs from Oct. 18 through to Oct. 27. Click here for more information about the festival and its various events.
To contact a reporter for this story, email Jesse Tomas or call 250-488-3065 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.
We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above. SUBSCRIBE to our awesome newsletter here.
