nature, Photography

Okanagan Views

22 Comments

We took a long-way-around drive in the countryside to visit a favourite winery.

We tried a new production year of a wine we have repeatedly enjoyed and also admired the view from the huge floor-to-ceiling windows of their very comfortable tasting room.

Many of their vines suffered in the unexpected January cold snap and they have been severely pruned back so that the plants’ energy can be diverted into root recovery rather than spent on fruit growth.

This particular winery will get past this difficulty because it has stored juice from previous years and they have survived hard times before by creating (and succeeding hugely with) unique blends. Unfortunately, many others, especially the small ones, don’t have that kind of fallback. I understand that the government will be allowing wineries to buy juice from Ontario (and will also subsidise costs) until this hurdle has been cleared.

On the way home we stopped in several places to take a walk and enjoy the views and although we had a couple of sun showers we didn’t see that as a negative.

Happy Tuesday.

22 thoughts on “Okanagan Views”

    1. It sure is, even in the best of times. This area has been very successful from a wine production perspective for about the last 30 years, but recent severe weather attributable to climate change (fires, droughts, and then a devastating 5-day cold snap) has had a huge impact including trickle down effects on tourism, restaurants and hotels. There are quite a few wineries for sale right now, too.

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  4. So glad there is help out there to support these wineries through this setback. Wishing nothing but the best growing conditions for these vines until they are back to strength. Always good to go for a scenic drive. Thanks for sharing Lynette. Allan

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    1. Yes, I am glad, too. They really got whacked over a 5-day period, some areas worse than others. The government is requiring the wineries that get help from them to install underground water irrigation so that the plant roots can be protected if there’s another of these cold snaps. There’s also going to be a change in trellising to protect against the cold, but I don’t understand how that works. Thanks for the good wishes.

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    1. I hope so, too, Anneli. People work so hard in this business (really, any agricultural business is hard), sometimes for years, and then they get shellacked by five cold days. I couldn’t do it.

      Yes, we had a very nice drive back home in the hills above Skaha Lake. Cheers.

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    1. It was a very lovely day, Linda. Yes, I think climate change is going to have a bigger impact as time goes along. There are actions the wineries (and orchards) can take to mitigate such cold snaps, but they will have to comply with government requirements around green activities to get the financial breaks. A good thing, in my opinion.

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