Volatile winter weather affecting icewine production in Ontario, producers say
It's been a tough season for icewine in Ontario.
Unpredictable and fluctuating winter weather, combined with a reduced vine crop due to a debilitating cold snap last year, has meant a smaller yield this season. And some producers have opted out of making the dessert wine altogether.
"It looks like there wasn't a lot of icewine made this year," Aaron Dobbin, president of the Wine Growers of Ontario, said in an interview.
"The volatility -- that's what we're seeing right now as the biggest challenge with climate change."
Swings in temperature have made the icewine grape harvest more challenging in recent years, Dobbin said. Changing weather patterns also affect work done after harvest to prepare for the following year's icewine crop, he said.
"We are seeing cold snaps in April, in May," he said. "So when the buds start coming and then we get cold snaps after the buds have come, that's a big problem for our industry."
Many producers also have smaller crops to harvest from this year due to a severe drop in temperatures in January 2022 that killed a significant portion of vines, Dobbin said.
Pillitteri Estates Winery in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., began this season with a "diminished crop" as a result of that cold snap, said Jamie Slingerland, director of viniculture at the winery.
The winery then had to delay its harvest as it waited for cold enough weather.
"This was a bad winter for icewine," said Slingerland. "We couldn't pick a good portion of our crop until the first week in February."
Grapes for icewine must be harvested in temperatures no warmer than -8 C, according to standards set by VQA Ontario, the province's wine regulator.
"(The grape harvest) normally is done early in the winter. We try never to do an icewine harvest in March," said Slingerland, noting that their icewine grapes are typically harvested in the first week and a half of January.
The longer a winery has to wait for the right temperatures to harvest, the higher the chances of losing grapes, he said.
Warmer bouts of weather later in the winter can cause grape varieties with thinner skins to dehydrate and begin to decompose on the vine, said Slingerland. Grapes can also be attractive to birds, he added.
"As you get toward February and if you get some warmer weather before that, you start to lose two per cent a day," he said. "There's almost nothing left ... of say, for instance, riesling or a cabernet franc grape by the 1st of February."
Poor weather and a deteriorating market in previous years played into Henry of Pelham Family Estate Winery's decision to not produce icewine this year, said president Dan Speck.
"We had a short crop due to some really cold weather in January of 2022," said Speck. "And so really, all of our fruit was directed towards still and sparkling wines and not towards icewines."
Speck said mild winters and deep cold snaps have caused issues in recent years, but he is nonetheless optimistic the industry will persist.
"Warming weather in Canada is more likely to lead to challenges in terms of quantity, not in terms of the ability to produce it at all," said Speck.
Reif Estate Winery in Niagara-on-the-Lake also opted to not produce any icewine for the 2022-23 season, the first time it has made such a decision since 1984.
"Reason No. 1 is basically the crop over on our farm was very low, so we didn't have many grapes available to make icewine," said president Klaus Reif.
"The winter of 2021 to '22, we had a very cold night and we lost many of our grapevines. So we had about a 40 per cent lower crop than in (previous) years."
Reif said they also opted not to produce icewine this season because of excess inventory left over from previous seasons, when the pandemic caused a severe drop in tourism from Asia, which drives a lot of Canadian icewine sales.
Reif believes wineries in Canada will continue to produce icewine in the short term, though he is unsure beyond that.
"In the wine industry ... the up-and-down temperatures, it's very, very harmful for us," he said. "For now, we're safe. But who knows what it's going to be in 50 years ... It's very hard to predict."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 10, 2023.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Several flight attendants from Pakistan have gone missing after landing in Canada
Multiple flight attendants from Pakistan International Airlines have abandoned their jobs and are believed to have sought asylum in Canada in the past year and a half, a spokesperson for the government-owned airline says.
BREAKING Ottawa public school board, 3 Toronto-area school boards launch lawsuit against social media giants
The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board and three school boards in the Toronto-area have launched legal action against social media giants, accusing them of "disrupting students' fundamental right to education."
Rainfall warnings of up to 90 mm among weather alerts in effect for 7 provinces
Rainfall warnings of up to 90 millimetres, air quality advisories and other alerts have been issued for seven Canadian provinces, according to the latest forecasts.
Tipping is off the table at this Toronto restaurant
A Toronto restaurant introduced a surprising new rule that reduced the cost of a meal and raised the salaries of staff.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.
Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in N.Y. hush-money criminal case
Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order that bars him from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial.
A fight to protect the dignity of Michelangelo's David raises questions about freedom of expression
Michelangelo's David has been a towering figure in Italian culture since its completion in 1504. But in the current era of the quick buck, curators worry the marble statue's religious and political significance is being diminished.
Doctors visiting a Gaza hospital are stunned by the war's toll on Palestinian children
An international team of doctors visiting a hospital in central Gaza was prepared for the worst. But the gruesome impact Israel’s war against Hamas is having on Palestinian children still left them stunned.
China's latest EV is a 'connected' car from smart phone and electronics maker Xiaomi
Xiaomi, a well-known maker of smart consumer electronics in China, is joining the country's booming but crowded market for electric cars.