Principles of Food & Wine Pairings

Principles of Food & Wine Pairings

The holiday season is a fun and joyous time of year. It marks a time of celebration including get-togethers with family and friends, holiday parties, and many festive dinners. With more wine-drinking opportunities, we get lots of questions about which wines are best to serve for different occasions or what new wine to try for a specific festive celebration.

Many food and wine pairing recommendations are classic and straightforward based on the meat. These pairing charts say, for example, to pair chicken with Chardonnay, turkey with Pinot Noir, and cheese with Merlot. In reality, these simple suggestions ignore that there are as many different ways to prepare chicken, as there are ways to produce a Chardonnay.

For example, chicken with lemon, chicken tikka masala, fried chicken, or spicy Thai chicken are all chicken-based dishes, but each one tastes very different and each will pair better with different wines. When considering the food portion of the pairing, instead of looking at the main ingredient (i.e. chicken), we suggest focusing on the most prominent textures and dominant flavours in the dish.

Now, when thinking about the wine portion of the pairing, we suggest focusing on the style of wine rather than the grape varietal. A Riesling can be dry, off-dry, semi-sweet, sparkling, ice wine, late harvest, or many other styles. Therefore, it is better to focus on the style of wine. The style can be described in terms of acidity levels, sweetness, texture, and weight.

In this article, we will try to explain how to pair your wine so that you can make a great choice for yourself in any situation.

Here are a few general rules for pairing wines:

• Wine and food can complement each other, where the combination makes both the wine and the food taste better. It is also possible that the specific combination of wine and food can have a negative impact on each other. It can be magical when the food and wine pairing enhances the flavours of both. However, in most cases, we should be happy with a combination that is appropriate. Pairings are rarely perfect, although some are certainly much better than others.
• A poor or flawed wine is not going to taste any better with a well-paired dish. Conversely, an unpleasant dish will not be any more appealing with a nice wine. So, both the cook and the winemaker have a job to do.
• Choose a wine that you like. If you don’t like a certain type of wine, you won’t like it any better just because it’s paired appropriately. If you cringe at the aroma of an older Riesling because it reminds you of your neighbour’s stinky garage when you were growing up, you won’t like it any better at Christmas, even when it is nicely paired with a wonderful dish.
• Be open-minded. We all have our favourite wines and we all have wines that we avoid, particularly when we drink the wine by itself. When pairing wine with food, be open for new discoveries. Allow yourself to be surprised by new varietals. Or say yes to a varietal you don’t normally drink. You may very well learn to like a specific style of wine, especially if it’s paired with the right food. So be open.

Now that we have the general rules laid out, let’s look at the basic principles of good food and wine pairings.

Rule One: Match the acidity level in the wine and food

Both food and wine can range from acidic or tart to rich. Generally, more acidic food pairs well with more acidic wine and richer food pairs well with richer wines. Foods and beverages that are tart can cleanse your mouth, creating a refreshing sensation. On the other hand, some food and wine can be very rich and buttery, which coats the inside of your mouth.

Keep in mind that at the extremes of the acidic to rich range, pairings are more difficult. A salad with a very tart vinaigrette is very hard to pair with any wine, no matter how tart. With dishes that are super-rich, sometimes contrasting the richness with a more acidic wine, creates a more interesting pairing. For example, cheese fondue is super rich, but often does better with a more acidic white wine. Be careful though when pairing cream based sauces with tart white wines, because although it may cut through some of the fat, the combination is prone to curdle.

Rule Two:  Match the weight in the wine and food

Pair a lighter dish with a lighter wine and a rich dish bursting with flavour with a rich heavy wine. The weight of a wine is influenced by alcohol, tannins, and flavour intensity. An unoaked Chardonnay will be lighter than a Chardonnay aged in French oak barrels. The weight from food comes from fat, flavours, and to some extent, sweetness. The wine and the dish should be equal partners, with neither overwhelming the other.

Rule Three: Tannins need fat

Tannins in a wine can make the palate feel dry. Fat from meat, fish, or even cheese can soften the drying sensation from the tannins making the wine smoother. So younger wines with more astringent tannins do better with fatter cuts like prime rib. Wines with softer tannins, through aging, pair better with leaner cuts of beef.

Rule Four: Heat needs sugar

Many cultures that serve spicy dishes have side dishes to cool things down. Many people think that wine will cool a spicy dish down, but alcohol can actually intensify the heat. Because heat needs sugar to cool things down, when thinking about a wine pairing for spicy food, it is best to pair spicy food with a slightly sweet lower alcohol wine. This is why a slightly off-dry Riesling pairs so beautifully with lightly spicy food, while a sweeter Late Harvest Riesling can balance even more heat.

Rule Five: Avoid mixing tannins and salt

Salt intensifies the impressions of tannins and alcohol. It also can reduce the expression of fruit characteristics. Too much salt on a steak or in an aged cheese, can make a subtle Cabernet Franc turn into a hard, tannic wine that lacks fruit.

Rule Six: Match the sweetness level in wine and food

With dessert, you want the wine to be sweeter than the food. Luckily there is a wide array of possible wines to pair with almost any dessert. There are appropriate dessert-pairing wines ranging from lighter sweet wines to ice wines to rich, heavy ports.

Often, we take special care with food and wine pairings for our special dinners with friends and loved ones. If you find that one of the pairings is not working out the way you had envisioned, consider replacing it with an alternative. There is no sense in drinking the whole bottle if the pairing isn’t working. Save the bottle for after dinner or enjoy it the next day with another meal.

Wine and Cheese

Because wine and cheese parties are so common during the holidays, we wanted to specifically address this pairing. Wine and cheese are often served together because the pairing can be quite stunning, enhancing both the wine and the cheese. However, there are literally hundreds of wine options and hundreds of cheese options, therefore making the pairings here very important.

When thinking about wine and cheese, all the principles from above apply without reservation. For example, soft, fresh and young (cow or goat) cheeses tend to be more tart with higher acidity. Therefore, try a crisp, fresh, dry white wine, like Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Gris with these. Soft cheeses with a bit more age, like Brie and Camembert do well with a bit richer wine like Chardonnay or Gewürztraminer. Semi-aged cheese that is bit firmer (and a bit saltier) can work well with red wines like young, fruity Pinot Noir or even Cabernet/Merlot blends that are soft and smooth. Hard aged cheeses, which tend to be salty, work well with Vintage Port, which is low in tannins and semi-sweet. And if you like blue cheese? Blue cheese, which tends to be very salty, pairs nicely with sweeter white wines, like a Late Harvest Botrytis affected Riesling.

So, whatever is on your menu this holiday season, keep these guidelines and principles in mind as you think about your pairings. Maybe you’ll even discover a new favourite! Whatever wine and food pairings you choose in the days ahead, have fun and savour the joys of this most wonderful time of year.

Fort Berens Wine Pairings

At Fort Berens, we offer a wide range of wines each with a distinct style. While the vintage may taste different from year to year, we try to keep the style consistent.

Alluvium White

Wine style: Dry, crisp, with higher acidity, fruit forward, light-medium body, low tannins (unoaked).

Food pairings:

White fish, pan-seared with lemon, parsley and rice
Rocket salad, pine nuts, parmesan, olive oil, and lemon juice
Fresh soft cheeses

Pinot Gris

Wine style: Dry, crisp, with moderate acidity, fruit-forward, medium-bodied (from lees contact), low tannins (unoaked).

Food pairings:

Sautéed or grilled shrimp
Grilled summer vegetables
Shrimp and avocado sushi
Grilled chicken with Herbs de Provence off the BBQ
Goat cheese, brie

Riesling

Wine style: Slightly off-dry, crisp, with higher acidity, fruit-forward, medium-bodied (from a touch of sweetness), low tannins (unoaked).

Food pairings:

Mild chicken curry (based on Thai or Indian recipe)
Munster cheese or other red rind cheeses

Chardonnay

Wine style: Dry, crisp, with higher acidity, fruit-forward, medium-bodied, medium tannins (lightly oaked).

Food pairings:

Eggs Benedict - West Coast style with smoked salmon
Sautéed scallops

Rosé

Wine style: Dry, crisp, with higher acidity, fruit-forward, medium-bodied, low tannins (unoaked)

Food pairings:

Mushroom ravioli with parsley
Summer salad with grilled tuna
Bruschetta with tomatoes and shrimp

Alluvium Red

Wine style: Dry, round, with moderate acidity, fruit-forward, medium-bodied, soft tannins (oaked).

Food pairings:

Spaghetti Bolognese with basil
Pizza with finocchiona salami, black olives, mozzarella di bufala, and arugula

Pinot Noir

Wine style: Dry, round, with moderate acidity, fruit-forward, medium-bodied, soft tannins (oaked).

Food pairings:

Grilled filet of salmon smoked on a cedar plank
Grilled quail with tomato and corn salsa
Pulled pork sandwich (not too spicy)

Merlot

Wine style: Dry, round, smooth, with low acidity, fruit-forward, full-bodied, soft tannins (oaked).

Food pairings:

A “real” hamburger made from ground sirloin on a homemade sesame toasted bun
Leaner steaks from the BBQ, like striploin smothered in Fort Berens’ BBQ sauce
Boneless saddle steak of venison on the BBQ

Cabernet Franc

Wine style: Dry, round, smooth, with low acidity, full-bodied, medium tannins (oaked).

Food pairings:

Juniper braised short ribs
Roast leg of lamb with garlic and rosemary
Shredded slow roasted duck with balsamic glazing

Meritage

Wine style: Dry, round, smooth, with low acidity, full-bodied, medium tannins (oaked).

Food pairings:

Best cuts from the beef: tenderloin, prime rib or rib-eye with potato wedges
Lean cut of venison on the BBQ with polenta

Late Harvest Riesling

Wine style: Off-dry to semi-sweet, with higher acidity, rich fruit, medium-bodied (from the sweetness), low tannins (unoaked), low alcohol.

Food pairings:

Cheesecake
Sautéed vanilla pears with Zabaglione
Wild raspberry crème caramel
Grandmother’s apple pie with vanilla ice cream

Reserve Wine & Food Pairings

Fort Berens Reserve Wine Pairings

At Fort Berens, we offer a wide range of wines each with a distinct style. Over the years, we have been able to cultivate and refine our approaches in the vineyard and cellar and have expanded our collection to include a full series of small lot, ultra premium reserve wines which express the unique terroir of our region. We have currated for you here a quick reference to some food pairing suggestions that we think would work wonderfully with our reserve wines.

 

Chardonnay Reserve (White Gold)

Wine style: Dry, crisp, with juicy acidity, fruit-forward, medium-bodied, oaked.

Food pairings: Enjoy with a stuffed roasted chicken or turkey, baked ham, potatoes au gratin, or for the ultimate luxury, lobster. 

Riesling Reserve

Wine style: Off-dry, crisp, with higher acidity and minerality, fruit-forward, concentrated, medium-bodied.

Food pairings: Enjoy the Riesling Reserve with spicy Pad Thai, cheese fondue, or a rich and creamy Alfredo sauce over linguine. 

Red Gold

Wine style: Rich, velvety, full-bodied, long and intense finish, plush tannins.

Food pairings: Red Gold is the perfect wine to pair with your finest cuts of beef such as prime rib or a well-marbeled porterhouse steak. You can also enjoy this bold wine with big game such as a hearty moose stew.

Pinot Noir Reserve

Wine style: Concentrated, savoury earthy flavours, bright cherry fruit, elegant, long finish.

Food pairings: While a fireplace is not required, it is certainly recommended while enjoying this wine paired with a fire-roasted tomato lentil stew, grilled salmon, or roasted duck. It's also a great choice to pair with a traditional turkey dinner for the holidays.

Cabernet Franc Reserve

Wine style: Opulent blueberry and blackberry aromas, purple floral perfume, medium body, ripe tannins, long finish.

Food pairings: This wine pairs beautifully with lamb, duck, or a fresh, housemade tomato and basil pizza.

Meritage Reserve

Wine style: Earthy, intensly structured, powerful, high acidity and tannins, boldy flavourful.

Food pairings: Enjoy this wine with roasted lamb, grilled steak, spaghetti bolognese, or lasagna. 

Fort Berens: 2024 Harvest Update

2024 Harvest Update 

We are excited to share that we have now completed our 2024 harvest. It has been a challenging year filled with despair and worry, yet also filled with excitement, innovation, hard work, and pioneering spirit. 

Like most BC wineries, our vineyards suffered significant winter damage earlier this year. As a result of the cold snap in January, we were originally anticipating a near 100% loss in our estate vineyard.

With the arrival of the sunshine and warmer weather in spring, we were thrilled to see that most of our vines were still alive. Our estate vineyard fared better than expected in some of our blocks and we were projecting an overall harvest amount between 20-30% of normal. During the summer, it appeared that our signature Cabernet Franc and Riesling were both doing better than we originally anticipated. Conversely, in the blocks that didn't do as well, including our Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon blocks, where there was little to no fruit, we worked on retraining the vines this year to prepare them for 2025.

While we were anticipating a much smaller than normal harvest, we set out on a unique and innovative way forward. We ventured beyond our borders to the renowned vineyards of Washington, seeking to create a unique expression of our winemaking tradition. Just as the land has shaped generations of people who lived here long before us, this vintage is a testament to resilience, respect for the land, and a spirit of exploration.  

We partnered with Sagemoor Estates in Washington State, where our team could produce wine from grapes from Washington, but using our protocols and in our style. We chose Washington because it is relatively close, and there are vineyards there that have similar growing conditions as our vineyards in Lillooet. We were able to use the tools and techniques that we use in Lillooet. With this collaborative process, our team made our Washington wines, just with grapes harvested from different vineyards, and pressed and fermented in a different cellar.

Our winemaker Alex Nel stayed in Lillooet to work on the harvest of our estate grown grapes while he also oversaw our assistant winemaker Seth Jex, who looked after the harvest of our Washington grown grapes.

We have now completed our harvest in both Lillooet and Washington, resulting in approximately:

• 50 tons of estate fruit (about 32% of our normal harvest)
• 68 tons of Washinton fruit 
• 118 tons of total fruit (combined, it will be about 75% of our normal harvest)

About our estate harvest, our winemaker Alex explained, "A cloudy and windy spring showed signs of a late vintage, but it was the best ripening season I have had here. Very moderate temperatures during peak flavour development allowed for slow and even phenolic ripening. The Grüner Veltliner and Cabernet Franc grapes from our Red Rock Vineyard were outstanding. We are seeing well balanced acidities and aromatic whites, especially on the Grüner Veltilner, while the Cabernet Franc from our Red Rock Vineyard expresses lots of concentration, while being fruit-forward."

Our Assistant Winemaker Seth spent many weeks in Washington as our onsite visiting winemaker throughout harvest and crush. He was hands-on selecting the vineyards and grapes, tasting and monitoring the fruit, selecting the picking dates, hand picking and pressing the grapes, overseeing the fermentation, and arranging for the transport of the unfinished wines back to Lillooet. 

Regarding our Washington harvest, Seth explained, "We are excited to showcase these Washington wines to you. They are expressive, youthful and fresh, vibrant, and perfect to enjoy in the spring and summer next year. We'll have Washington Riesling, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, and Rosé. I am really pleased with all of these wines, and particularly our Washington Rosé. We made it from Syrah grapes, from a vineyard planted in 1998 in the Wahluke Slope AVA (American Viticulture Area) in Washington. This Syrah Rosé is inspired by South African Syrah Rosés. Both Alex and I have worked with Syrah for Rosé in South Africa, and we can't wait for you to try this one." 

Seth recently returned from Washington, bringing the last of the unfinished Washington wine with him. From here, Alex and Seth will now work together on all of our Lillooet and Washington wines. The wines will be finished, aged, and bottled at our winery in Lillooet. While bottling is still far off, the wines from grapes grown in Washington will be bottled separately with a distinct label. It will be a really unique way to compare, contrast, and enjoy wines made by our team both from here in Lillooet and from there in Washington. 

We have shared a number of reels, videos, and photos on our Facebook and Instagram pages, covering our harvest both from here and there. If you haven't yet, we invite you to check them out.  

In addition to Alex and Seth, we would like to express our deep gratitude to all of our grape growing, harvest, and winemaking teams both here in Lillooet and in Washington. Special thanks to the team from Sagemoor for welcoming Seth and treating him so well this fall. 

Despite the challenges of this harvest, we are passionate about what we do, and we remain committed to the Lillooet VQA, our beautiful community, and our BC wine industry. We are resilient, resourceful, and innovative, and our team is committed to ensuring our business is sustainable and that we can continue to produce world-class wines with the quality and passion that you have come to expect from us at Fort Berens.

Thank you for being a part of the journey with us. 

 

2023 Vintage Report

2023 Vintage Report 

Our winemaker Alex expressed it best when he said that grape growing in Canada is very challenging. At the end of the day, it’s important to remember that we are farmers, and we are at the mercy of Mother Nature, who tested our vineyard and winemaking team in 2023. While this report is specifically about the 2023 vintage, we have also experienced the start of yet another very challenging growing season so far in 2024. As you’ve likely heard in the media, the very extended cold snap we had in January 2024 has caused further devastation in our vineyards and in vineyards all across BC. We’ll update you on these 2024 developments in the weeks ahead. 

2023 Harvest Highlights 

To look at the 2023 growing season, we must begin with fall 2022. You may recall that October 2022 was unseasonably warm. We had the warmest October on record in our vineyards, with temperatures in the high and mid-20s until mid-October. This was wonderful for our 2022 vintage because it gave us an extra 2 weeks of ripening time. However, this would prove to be the start of the challenges relating to the 2023 vintage.

Winter came quickly after our 2022 harvest ended, and the vines did not have time to properly shut down for the season. Additionally, we had almost no snow cover to keep the soil warm during this time. Then the temperatures started to fluctuate causing further complications for the vines. The temperature oscillated between +13 degrees C on Nov. 25th and -19 degrees C on Dec. 1st and then again between +3.5 degrees C on Dec. 12th and -26.4 degrees C on Dec. 22nd. Such varying circumstances made it harder for the vines to adapt to the low temperatures. The result was that the sensitive parts of the vines died, specifically the primary buds that carried the harvest potential for our 2023 growing season. 

In the spring of 2023, our vineyard manager Chris and our vineyard team conducted tests that showed severe damage of the primary buds in most blocks in our vineyards, well outside the normal range. We saw a much higher rate of bud damage than we’ve seen in prior years, across all our varietals.

Merlot showed the highest rate of bud damage. Vine death was luckily limited across the vineyard, except for the Cabernet Sauvignon block in our younger Red Rock Vineyard. In late June, our hardworking vineyard team replanted approximately 1,500 new Cabernet Sauvignon vines in our Red Rock Vineyard. 

We knew that our vineyard crew was in for a challenging year. They had to work extra hard to keep our vines and grapes healthy and to carefully manage our reduced crop.  

Overall, we had a long, dry season. It was not overly hot, and we had just 3 days that barely touched 40 degrees C, so it was a cooler year than normal. These cooler temperatures, particularly at night provided strong diurnal shifts in the vineyard with sunny days, relatively high daytime temperatures, and cool evenings.

We were fortunate to have had dry, clear, cooling winds from up the Duffey Lake Pass. Despite wildfires that burned around us, these cooling winds helped keep the vineyard and air relatively clear with little smoke. We only had 2 slightly smoky days, so we were lucky to not have to deal with wildfires and smoke during this growing season. 

We had cooler temperatures leading up to harvest. We started harvest about 2 weeks earlier than normal, on September 5th with Pinot Noir for our Rosé. Harvest ended on October 19th with Cabernet Franc. 

A Small 2023 Vintage 

To provide context, a full harvest for us would be approximately 158 tons. This includes grapes from our mature Dry Creek Vineyard and our younger Red Rock Vineyard. We had originally expected that 2023 would be the first year of full production for our Red Rock Vineyard. Heartbreakingly, this was not the case. We ended up with approximately 52 tons of grapes in 2023. This is roughly 33% of our estimated yield. 

Sadly, as mentioned earlier, the 2024 growing season is also off to a very rough start. At present, our estimate based on the most recent catastrophic winter damage is currently approximately 20 tons, or roughly 12.5% of our normal yield. This is an early estimate for 2024, and we’ll have more information on this as we go into summer. 

What to Expect from our 2023 Vintage 

Despite the challenging weather events, our winemaker Alex is excited for the 2023 vintage. “In 2023, despite it being a significantly smaller yield than normal, we had an excellent, balanced harvest. In particular, our Cabernet Franc from our young Red Rock Vineyard was very good. Overall, our fruit was very healthy. The bunch weights were lower, so the grapes provided concentrated flavours. The grapes ripened earlier, so you can anticipate lower alcohol wines with this 2023 vintage. The wines are absolutely beautiful in colour, and overall, this is a very elegant vintage.” 

Our 2023 vintage whites will be released in the weeks ahead. You can expect elegant wines with beautiful, fresh acidity. While still very early, the 2023 red wines are soft, rich, and elegant with brilliant colour.  

With a yield of just 33% of what we were expecting, you need to be aware that we will have a lot less wine available. We estimate that some of our white wines and our Rosé will sell out during the summer. 

Some of our wines, particularly our Reserve and Small Lot wines, are very small batches. Additionally, we will be skipping a vintage (and likely two) for some of our wines.

With Challenges Comes Innovation 

Recognizing early on that we were likely going to have a very small vintage in 2023, and therefore we would have much less wine to sell, we challenged our team to look for additional and innovative solutions. 

We are absolutely thrilled to share with you one of these innovations. As you may know, our assistant winemaker Seth is also the owner and cidermaker at Lillooet Cider. Alex and Seth took on the challenge of creating a very special collaboration. Today we are excited to announce the launch of our new Vineyard Cider Rosé.

This Vineyard Cider Rosé is a delightful combination of Gala and Ambrosia apples, fermented with Champagne yeast. It was blended with barrel-fermented Gewürztraminer and a splash of fruit-forward Merlot for the beautiful colour. This lively and dry cider bursts with flavours of crisp apples, zesty grapefruit, and juicy peaches. It is fresh and vibrant with a medium-bodied finish. At 7.5% alc./vol, it’s light and refreshing. it’s a delicious choice to enjoy on the patio or while soaking up the sun by the water.

This very special, limited release Vineyard Cider Rosé will be available this spring.

                                               

What to Expect Going Forward 

Based on the vine damage from these extreme cold weather events from 2022-2024, we have modified our vineyard strategy for 2024 to do what we need to do to support a healthy crop in 2025. We do expect that the vast majority of our vines survived. We anticipate that with a lot of work, the vines will bear fruit in 2025 and beyond. It will likely take 3-4 years before the vines are back in a fully productive state. This will take a lot of work in the vineyard. Whether the vineyard bears a crop or not, we still have to tend to the vineyard, pruning, thinning, irrigating, fertilizing, and more.

In previous years, we have been able to supplement our estate grown grapes with additional purchased grapes from a few select grape growers in the Okanagan. However, our growers experienced the same winter damage and also expect severe crop loss. 

Looking longer term, we expect our harvest over the next 5 years to be in total 300 tons lower than expected. This is the equivalent of about 120,000 bottles of wine. Without significant changes, we are currently looking at a severe shortage of wine towards the end of 2024, into 2025 and 2026.

Despite the challenges, we are passionate about what we do, and we remain committed to the Lillooet VQA. The weather events we saw in Lillooet are not any worse than the South Okanagan has experienced, and the impacts we are enduring are similar to the Okanagan. Based on that, we remain committed to the Lillooet VQA. There is still a lot to learn about the frequency of the winter events. In the meantime, we are looking at strategies to help us mitigate these extreme weather events.

We are committed to Lillooet, our beautiful community, and our BC wine industry. Not unlike the challenges we experienced during COVID, we will pivot and we will be resourceful. Our goal is to ensure our business is sustainable and that we can continue to produce world-class wines for you. 

While the journey is a challenge, it is one we are passionate about. We are deeply grateful for everyone who has shared in our journey and has supported us through all of the challenging and the wonderful times. Thank you for your love and support.

2023 Crop Report: A Look at the Impact of the 2022/2023 Winter

You may have read some reports about the past winter cold snap and the effect on vineyards in the Okanagan, where they forecast a very low crop year for 2023. In our Lillooet vineyards, last winter was equally cold and our forecast for 2023 is also for a very low crop.

Last winter we had a record low temperature of minus 26.4 degrees C on Dec. 22nd. Cold temperatures are not the only thing that affect our cropping levels. The year before we had a low of minus 25.7 degrees C in our vineyard on Boxing Day, which was close. Still, we had an amazing crop in 2022, both in quantity (average crop) as well as in quality. But the circumstances were very different then.

In the 2021/2022 winter, we had over 1 foot of snow in our vineyard in December and from early December onward, the temperatures started dropping gradually beyond zero degrees. Vines can adapt to colder temperatures if they have time to do it, and in that winter, they adapted very nicely to the winter circumstances. The snow gave a nice layer of insulation, and the soil was relatively warm as a result.

In the winter of 2022/2023, there was almost no snow cover to keep the soils warm and the temperatures oscillated between Nov.25th (+13 degrees C) and Dec.1st (-19 degrees C) and then again between Dec. 12th (+3.5 degrees C) and Dec 22nd (-26.4 degrees C). This all came after the warmest October on record in our vineyards, with temperatures in the high and mid-twenties until mid-October.

Such varying circumstances make it harder for vines to adapt to low temperatures and the result is that some parts of the vines die back, especially the buds that carry the potential crop for the next season.

Each year, our vineyard manager Chris does tests to estimate our potential crop. He takes canes from our different vineyard blocks, then he dissects the buds on those canes to see if they are alive (=green).

A grapevine’s bud consists of 3-buds-in-1. The primary bud is generally the most fruitful, the secondary a bit less, and generally, the tertiary bud is the hardiest, but the least fruitful which means that it may not produce any fruit, but just ensures that the plant can grow that season. The primary bud is usually the most susceptible to frost damage. By sampling the buds, we can estimate what the rest of the buds will be like.

The results of this test can differ from block to block and from variety to variety. Typically, we see some degree of bud damage in some blocks, and typically that damage is within a certain range. Chris then instructs our vineyard team, when pruning, to leave more buds on vines in the blocks that showed bud damage. The extra buds that are left will compensate for the number of dead buds. That way we can make sure that our potential crop level will be high enough.

This year, the bud tests showed severe die-back of primary buds in most blocks, way outside of that acceptable range. There are more damaged buds than what we can compensate for by leaving more buds on the vines. As a test, Chris left 10 rows in our Merlot block un-pruned until later. We will not prune these vines until we can see the new shoots on the vines.

We’ve noticed that our Merlot showed the highest rate of bud damage, while the Pinots were looking better. Overall, we are seeing a much higher rate of bud damage than we’ve seen in prior years. At this time of the year, it is too early to tell what the exact cropping levels will be, but we are sure that they will be under our average cropping levels.

In the Okanagan, similar bud tests have been done in the vineyards, with similar results.

At the end of May/early June, we will have a better idea of how many grape clusters we can expect. Our vineyard crew will have to work extra hard this year to keep our vines and grapes healthy and to carefully manage our reduced crop. Lower crop levels typically result in higher quality fruit, and therefore in higher quality wines, but in smaller quantities.

It will not be until harvest that we know how much crop we will have to work with, and we will keep you posted if we have any news from our vineyard this summer.

      

2022 Vintage Report

2022 Vintage Report

Mother Nature continued to challenge our vineyard and winemaking team in 2022. Despite the challenges, it ended up being another remarkable growing season.

           

2022 Harvest Highlights

The winter of 2021-22 was cold and harsh with a record low temperature of -25.7 degrees on December 27th. Despite our expectations, the vines ended up showing minimal winter damage, which may have been a combined result of the slow drop in temperatures during December, combined with an atypical (for Lillooet) snow cover. The slow drop in temperature meant that the plants were able to optimally acclimatize to the drop in temperatures and the vines went into deep dormancy, while the snow cover kept the soil temperatures relatively high.

The cold winter was followed by a late and cool spring, and bud break was 2 weeks later than normal. A cloudy and rainy June delayed ripening even further.

        

Summer was fairly typical for Lillooet. It was hot and dry, although there were only 3 days just above 40 degrees. The temperature was in the mid-to-high 30-degree range for most of the summer. We had little disease pressure and no smoke or fire challenges near the winery. We performed early leaf removal on the east side of the vine rows to get maximal sunlight onto the grape clusters for better ripening.

          

The weather cooled down only a little in September, with temperatures remaining in the high twenties into October. October was unseasonably warm, giving the grapes an extra 2 weeks of ripening time, which was just what was needed. We got everything optimally ripe including the late ripening varietals. Harvest started on September 12th and wrapped up on November 2nd, a full 14 days later than in 2021.

With our Red Rock Vineyard coming into production, we were able to harvest the highest crop ever from our estate vineyards, and the 2022 vintage also reflects one of the highest percentages of estate grown grapes.

We put a lot of focus on the soil and irrigation in our new Red Rock Vineyard in 2022, and we are really happy with the beautifully balanced grapes from this vineyard. Looking ahead, we expect to increase the amount of estate grown grapes because our Red Rock Vineyard will be at 100% production.

          

In summary, our 2022 vintage ended up being above our expectations, which was fairly unexpected, given the way the season started. While the season started out late, it also ended later which allowed for everything to ripen optimally.

We would also like to take a moment to celebrate and thank our entire hardworking vineyard and winemaking team lead by our Winemaker Alessandro (Alex) Nel and our Vineyard Manager, Christopher Marquardt for managing through all of the challenges this past year.

What to Expect from our 2022 Vintage

In 2022, Alex continued to make several changes to our winemaking protocols to further raise the quality of the wines. We purchased more seasoned wine barrels this past year, so our barrel program is now where we want it. This will allow for more malolactic fermentation in barrels.

Our 2022 vintage whites, which we will be releasing in the weeks ahead, are elegant with beautiful, fresh acidity, and lovely aromatics. Portions of our Small Lot Dry Riesling and Small Lot Grüner Veltliner went through natural fermentation in neutral barrels, which added richness and fullness to the mouthfeel. Our 100% estate grown Rosé is juicy and luscious, perfect to enjoy this summer. Watch for stylish new bottles for our 2022 Riesling and Rosé. While still very early, the 2022 red wines are soft, rich, and elegant with brilliant colour. 

We can’t wait to share our new 2022 vintage wines with you. Stay tuned for more on the release of our 2022 vintage white and Rosé wines in the near future.

          

Cheers!

The Fort Berens Team

2021 Vintage Report

As we do annually at this time of year, we want to pause and reflect on our most recent growing year and give you an idea of what you can look forward to with our 2021 vintage. 

2021 Vintage Report 

​2021 was a challenging year globally, across Canada, within BC, and here in Lillooet. Locally, we had many challenges to deal with, from COVID-19, the heat dome, wildfires, mudslides, floods, and road closures throughout the province. In addition, there were supply chain issues and labour shortages. These challenging times continued to push us to pivot and innovate in all areas of our winery and vineyard.

Introducing Our New Winemaker 

Our hardworking vineyard and winemaking team also had to contend with the impact of many of these challenges. We are very grateful that we had strong leadership to manage through these challenges. Alessandro (Alex) Nel joined the Fort Berens team as Winemaker & Viticulturist in January 2021 to lead our vineyard and winemaking team. He worked on our 2021 vintage from the start of pruning to the last press load of grapes on November 10th.

An accomplished and award-winning winemaker, Alex completed his degree in Viticulture and Oenology at Elsenburg University. He spent 10 years as winemaker at Cederberg Winery in the Western Cape of South Africa. While at Cederberg Winery, Alex produced one of the Top 50 wines in the Decanter World Wine Awards 2021. 

Alex also worked at wineries in California, France, and New Zealand, giving him a depth of experience working in a range of vineyards and wineries in different regions and preparing him for his time at Fort Berens and our new wine region in Lillooet. 

2021 Harvest Highlights 

In the vineyard, Mother Nature presented us with many challenges in 2021. The year started out well. We had a good winter without a lot of heavy frost, so we were fortunate to start the season with healthy vines. We had some mild frost in the spring, but thankfully it didn’t damage the buds. We had a fairly dry spring, and everything went smoothly during bud break and flowering. 

In June, the heat wave hit. We had the highest temperatures ever recorded in June, followed by wildfires in the area. The heat dome caused some sun damage on our young vines in our newer Red Rock Vineyard. Some of the grapes were burned by the sun. The vines partially shut down during the heat wave to protect themselves, however when the heat wave ended, they came back, and new growth and green shoots pushed out. We did have a lower yield than we were hoping for from this vineyard because of the sun damage, but thankfully the majority of the grapes and the vines bounced back, and we don’t anticipate long term damage from the heat wave. 

Our Dry Creek Vineyard fared well during the heat wave, in part because the vines are more established with a fuller canopy and root system that protected the grapes from the intense heat and sun. 

We were fortunate that despite the McKay Creek and Lytton fires in the area, we had no smoke around the vineyards and no smoke taint in our wines. Thankfully during this time, it was also quite windy which helped blow the smoke away from the vineyard.

We were concerned about the wildfires hitting the vineyards of our grape growers in the Lytton area. Fortunately, and incredibly, the vineyard from one of our growers in Lytton, Winches Spur Vineyard, was spared from the fires. We made a small lot Pinot Gris exclusively from grapes from this vineyard which will be released this spring. We are pleased to announce that full proceeds from this wine will be used to help with the Lytton recovery and rebuilding efforts.

After the heat wave and the fires, the weather cooled down nicely. We had a lot of rain throughout the growing season with significant rainfall almost every week throughout harvest. After veraison, we had warm days and cooler nights for the last five weeks before harvest. This led to beautiful natural acidity and aromatics in the whites. We were able to have nice long hanging time on the reds, which also helped produce rich and bold reds.

Harvest began on August 30th as we started picking Chardonnay for a new Blanc de Blanc Sparkling wine. This new wine will be partially barrel fermented, and it will age for 36 months in bottle, so you will have to wait some time to enjoy this new sparkling wine. 

Our Vineyard Manager, Christopher Marquardt, did an incredible job managing our vineyard team through harvest, despite a number of obstacles. The rain during harvest proved challenging at times requiring adjustments to the picking schedule. In addition, with the large yield of grapes and labour shortage, we had to seek help from Okanagan-based pickers to complete harvest. Harvest ended with Cabernet Franc on October 23rd.

We had an above average harvest in our existing vineyard with higher yields, compared with last year. With our young Red Rock Vineyard coming into production, 2021 represented the biggest harvest ever from our estate despite losing some of the young grapes to sun damage. The heat damage in our young vines caused smaller berries which led to more concentrated wines made from these grapes. 

It has long been our goal to have more estate and Lillooet VQA fruit and to really showcase our Lillooet terroir in our wines. The 2021 vintage will move us closer to this goal, as we ended up with 2.8 tonnes of beautiful Cabernet Sauvignon from Red Rock Vineyard in addition to good third and fourth leaf crops of other grapes in this young vineyard. This is the first year that we have ever had estate grown Cabernet Sauvignon, and Alex says that these are among the top tanks in the winery at the moment. 

What to Expect from our 2021 Vintage 

In 2021, Alex made several changes to our winemaking protocols to further raise the quality of the wines. Our white wines are made extremely reductive, combined with aromatic yeasts and cold fermentations to produce fresh, lively white wines with great ageing potential.  This is the case for our Chardonnay, Rieslings, Pinot Gris, and Grüner Veltliner, which will be released in 2022.

For our classic 2021 vintage whites, grapes were crushed and destemmed into tank. After six hours of skin contact, they went to press where we separated the free run juice from the press fractions. Alex and our winemaking team engaged light pressing up to 8 PSI and then settled at cold temperature. 

Our reserve 2021 vintage whites were barrel fermented and underwent natural fermentation. This is the first time the Riesling Reserve has been barrel fermented at Fort Berens, so we are excited for this release in 2023.

In terms of our red wines, under direction from Alex, our picking team was quite selective with the picking of the grapes in the vineyard. Rather than picking all the grapes from a block on one day, our team picked the grapes within each block as they were ready. After picking, the red wine grapes underwent a one-night cold soak, and then started the fermentation process. We used a combination of punchdowns and pump overs every 4 hours. The wines were tasted every day to decide when to press. After ferment, some of the reds were left up to 20 days on the skins. This extended maceration period post fermentation produced more intense colours, and extracted fine tannins to provide structure. Because we didn’t press hard, the wines are more juicy and fruit-driven. 

We also enhanced our barrel ageing program. In 2021, we purchased about 60 additional barrels to help expand our barrel ageing program. All our reds, both classic and reserve, will now age for a minimum of 15 months in barrel going forward, and all will go through malolactic fermentation in barrels. In addition, we are moving away from American oak and moving to all French oak. Alex selected barrels from very specific coopers to give us the results we want. Going forward, anticipate red wines that are more integrated with the oak for a softer, richer more integrated wine. You will have the opportunity to taste these red wines upon release in fall 2023.

We are very optimistic for the future, as Alex further raises the bar on our winemaking. We are thrilled with the development of the wines from our 2021 vintage, and we can’t wait to share them with you. 

 

2020 Vintage Report

2020 represented a key milestone for us, as it marked the completion of our 10th harvest here at Fort Berens. For a winery in an emerging wine region, this is an important milestone and one worth pausing to celebrate. We are eternally grateful for the support from Lillooet, our customers, liquor stores and restaurants, and the entire BC wine, tourism, and hospitality industry. We would not be here today without all of your unwavering support.

When we first planted our vineyard, many wondered if we could grow grapes here in Lillooet. Not only did we demonstrate that we could grow grapes here, but we have shown that we can grow grapes that produce highly regarded, award-winning wines that reflect our unique terroir. 

As a result of increased demand and our desire to further showcase the Lillooet VQA, we planted our 18-acre Red Rock Vineyard in 2018 and 2019 and it now has 6 acres of Merlot, 5 acres of Cabernet Franc, 3.5 acres of Riesling, 2 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon, and 1 acre of Grüner Veltliner. This brings our estate vineyard to 38 planted acres. 

We were very pleased to have the first crop from our Red Rock Vineyard in 2020. This year we harvested Merlot and Cabernet Franc from the vines we planted in 2018. With our estate vineyard expansion now complete and starting to produce fruit, this means that in the years ahead, we will have more Lillooet-grown grapes, and we are excited to introduce two new varietals in our vineyard.    

The 2020 crop came in substantially lower than average. This was mostly due to smaller berry size and didn’t become apparent until later in the growing season. Smaller berries are great for colour and flavour, but typically, we see smaller bunch size (fewer berries per cluster) and fewer bunches per vine as leading causes for lower crop yields. This year, most indicators were normal, but in the end, the berries didn’t swell like they usually do. Some varietals ended up coming in with yields 20-40% lower than normal. Lower cropping levels meant we had less fruit to work with, and ultimately 2020 will be one of our smallest crops from our Dry Creek Vineyard since it came into full production. Having a small 2020 vintage means we are likely going to sell out of our wines more quickly than normal.

The 2020 season saw bud break in the first week of May, which is normal for our vineyard. The vines and grapes developed well with a spring and early summer that were cooler than average. Temperatures did not exceed 40 degrees Celsius during the summer. Along with a slightly cooler start of the season, we were thankful that there were no major fires of concern near Lillooet in 2020.

Veraison (when the grapes start to change colour from green to yellow or red) started on August 14th in our Pinot Noir grapes, which was 10 days later than normal. A heat spurt at the end of August and early September helped to ripen the grapes, and the sugars developed rapidly, so we were able to catch up on some of the time lost during the start of the season. 

The grapes were able to achieve optimal ripeness, and harvest began on September 14th, which is around the same date as we normally begin harvest. We started with Pinot Noir for the Rosé, followed by Chardonnay and Pinot Gris in our Dry Creek Vineyard. We then picked Merlot and Cabernet Franc from our new Red Rock Vineyard, also for Rosé, followed by Riesling and Cabernet Franc from our Dry Creek Vineyard. 

There were no extreme temperature variations in September, so the grapes maintained a gradual ripening process, allowing us to pick each varietal as they reached their optimal levels.

We had our first frost on October 22nd followed by our first snowfall on October 23rd. Thankfully, 90% of our harvest was in by this time, so it did not have a big impact. In the last two years, the first frost day was significantly earlier, October 9th, 2019, and October 3rd, 2018. This additional time before the first frost is important because it allows the vines time to absorb nutrients after harvest before they shut down for the season. This gives the vines the opportunity to build up reserves going into spring.

We completed harvest the week of October 29th.

In addition to our estate-grown grapes, we also brought in grapes from other grape growers we work with in the Lillooet-Lytton area as well as from the Okanagan and Similkameen. 

Overall, the grapes from this harvest were well balanced. They had a good amount of acidity and good sugar levels, so we anticipate a new vintage of wines that are fresh, clean, and beautifully fruit-forward. The white wines are aromatic and fragrant, and you’ll be able to start enjoying them this spring and summer. 

Grüner Veltliner is a grape variety that we’ve grown since 2011, and we planted just under an acre of it in our new Red Rock Vineyard in 2019. We were able to purchase Grüner Veltliner grapes from the Okanagan last fall, so this spring, we will be releasing our premier vintage of Grüner Veltliner made with these grapes. We look forward to producing our first estate vintage of Grüner Veltliner in 2021 or 2022.

We allocated most of the estate-grown Pinot Noir grapes to our Rosé. We are proud to say that this year’s Rosé 2020 will again be 100% estate grown and therefore Lillooet VQA. We think the Rosé 2020 is delicious. Everything went right in the making of this popular wine. The Rosé 2020 is predominantly Pinot Noir, with small fractions of Cabernet Franc and Merlot from our young Red Rock Vineyard.

Grapes from specific blocks in the vineyard were allocated for our reserve wines. We reduce the crop in these blocks by adjusting our pruning and shoot thinning. We monitor these blocks more often throughout the season, take off bunches that are behind in development before harvest, making sure that only the very best quality of grapes goes into our reserve wines. In the winery, these grapes are then processed separately, going into the best barrels where applicable, and we take more time in the winery before bottling the reserve wines. As we taste the reserve wines throughout the aging process, we see that the extra special care given to these blocks is well worth it. 

At this point, all of the wines are developing nicely, and we are very optimistic about our 2020 vintage. We can’t wait to share our newest vintage with you. 

2019 Vintage Report

With 10 years of growing grapes in our vineyard in Lillooet, we have seen a variety of weather patterns over the years. The weather tends to move in cycles with hot or cooler seasons, dry or wet seasons, years with fire or smoke, and seasons with more or less sunshine.  When farming, we try our best to anticipate and ultimately adapt to variations in seasonal weather. We look at trends, but as farmers, we have to be prepared for whatever we are given. The seasonal variations we see each year create opportunities and challenges for each vintage and make our wines more interesting to taste and compare.  

While our 2019 growing season started off average, the weather during harvest was challenging. We had a warm and dry spring with virtually no rain from February through May. Bud break in most of our blocks occurred at the end of April, which is average for this region. The vineyard developed well during the early summer with relatively early development in the summer months. During the summer, the temperatures were high, but not extraordinary, and we were fortunate not to have any smoky skies. We had a wet summer with more rain than normal. In September, temperatures cooled, and an early frost came on October 9th which caught us by surprise. The average temperature this season was well above the long-term average, similar to 2018, yet not as high as we saw in 2017. Overall, the quality of the fruit from this vintage was very good. 

In 2019 we welcomed a new vineyard manager and a new winemaker to our Fort Berens team. Andrew Stone joined the team as our new vineyard manager, and James Cambridge joined us as our new (and returning) winemaker. Together they brought new enthusiasm, experience, and techniques. Andrew and James worked very well together to strategize, plan and execute each step of the vintage, from the growing, harvesting and winemaking process.  

Andrew drew up a specific plan for each block in our vineyard based on the grapes being grown for specific wines. For each grape, there was a plan that covered crop load, pruning strategy, training requirements, and canopy management. The plan called for our vineyard team to pay special attention to the blocks that were identified for the Reserve Wines. Under Andrew’s leadership, our vineyard team was empowered to take on more roles and responsibilities. Some team members specialized in tractor work, others in irrigation and spraying. He implemented a new fertilization and irrigation program for better consistency, with the goal being to give the vines what they need at the right time.  

James uses a minimalist approach to the winemaking process to allow the fruit to speak for itself. He wants the wine to highlight the specific qualities of each vintage. The approach that James takes to winemaking is characterized by patience. He aims to take sufficient time for each step in the winemaking process: cold soaks prior to fermentation, slow ferments for whites by keeping temperatures low, longer post-maceration soaks for the reds after fermentation, and longer barrel aging to fully develop the wines he crafts. As we taste the wines throughout the aging process, we see that this labour-intensive winemaking practice is well worth it.  

With a new, seasoned team in place, this vintage was highly anticipated. At this point, the wines are developing nicely and are well on their way to meet the higher expectations we have for them.

In terms of yield, the vintage turned out to be in line with our plans. More importantly, James was pleased with the quality of the grapes that came in from our Dry Creek Vineyard. We harvested about 82 tonnes of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Riesling, Pinot Gris, Cabernet Franc and Merlot from Dry Creek Vineyard. Another 75 tonnes came from our contract growers in the Lillooet area and from growers in the Okanagan and Similkameen.  

In our plans for 2019, we decided that we would allocate all of the estate grown Pinot Noir grapes to our very popular Rosé. We encouraged the vigour of the vines with generous irrigation and limited shoot thinning. The grapes were harvested earlier in the season, at lower sugar levels. We are pleased with the results of this targeted approach, as it improved both the quality and quantity of the Rosé. We are proud to say that this years’ Rosé 2019 will be 100% estate grown and therefore Lillooet VQA, and we will have more Rosé available than in previous years.  
 
The Chardonnay from our vineyard was very clean and flavourful. Grapes from specific blocks in the vineyard allocated for the White Gold were whole-cluster pressed and 100% barrel fermented in a mix of new and neutral barrels. James used several different yeast strains to add complexity to the Chardonnay. Currently, the lees are being stirred every 2 weeks while the wine ages in French oak barrels. Chardonnay from the Similkameen will be combined with some of our estate fruit for the classic Chardonnay - 20% has been barrel fermented and 80% in stainless steel.   

The Riesling vines in our Dry Creek Vineyard had a tough year. Unlike other varietals in the vineyard, Riesling suffered from significant bud damage. Bud break was much later in relation to other varietals and our normal average. We saw buds emerge from the trunk, the graft and other unusual spots on the plants. We suspect that cool weather patterns in late winter and early spring affected the buds and delayed bud break. The yield from our Riesling block was very small. Small yields typically excel in flavours, concentration, and complexity. At this stage, we have decided to allocate the entire volume to the Riesling Reserve as we are thrilled with the quality. Fortunately, the vines were not damaged and bounced back through the season. Therefore, we anticipate that with a good growing season in 2020, we will have a much larger crop of Riesling in 2020. We brought in Riesling grapes from Vernon, Oliver, and the Similkameen, which were fermented separately and will be combined to produce our Riesling 2019. We will also have a small quantity of Dry Riesling made with grapes from the Okanagan.    

As the weather cooled in September, we had to wait a bit for the ripening and harvesting of the Pinot Gris, Cabernet Franc, and Merlot. When the frost came on October 9th, the vines lost their leaves and the grapes stopped developing sugars. Luckily, most varietals already had satisfactory levels of sugar and phenolics. The grapes were harvested as space opened up in the cellar. Some of the fruit was left a little longer, which dried the fruit out a bit and raised the sugar level, which will make for higher intensity and bolder reds. James used the same approach for processing all of our reds this year. The process started with a cold soak for 2 - 5 days prior to initiating fermentation. After the completion of fermentation, the wine was left for post-ferment maceration for 2 weeks. The wines are aging currently in new French and American oak barrels.   
 
We have high expectations of both the red and white wines from the 2019 vintage. The white wines are showing to be well balanced with good acidity. They are very fresh with lovely fruit flavours. The Rosé has great colour and will be fresh without a lot of residual sugar. Many of the red wine grapes were brought in a little bit dried out, which means they will have increased intensity and will be more full-bodied. They were cold-soaked which resulted in a deeper colour, and in some cases more complex flavour. These wines will develop substantially over the longer-than-usual barrel aging period; 12 months for the classic reds and about 16 - 18 months for the reserve reds.  

We are also thrilled to report that we completed planting the Red Rock Vineyard in May of 2019. A lot of time was spent making sure the small and growing vines are healthy as they develop. The Red Rock Vineyard now has 6 acres of Merlot, 5 Acres of Cabernet Franc, 3.5 acres of Riesling, 2 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon and 1 acre of Gruner Veltliner. This brings our estate vineyard to 38 planted acres. Our vineyard expansion means that in the years ahead, there will be more Lillooet-grown grapes, and we will have a broader selection of grapes to work with in Lillooet.  

When we welcomed James back to the team as our winemaker, one of our goals was to have more consistency in our vintages. This vintage is very much on target. Stylistically, we are happy with this vintage. We couldn’t be more excited to share the 2019 vintage with you. Thank you for waiting with us in anticipation of the release of our wines this coming year. 

Farming practices to protect our grapes

Fall is a wonderful time at the winery. It brings many seasonal changes including shorter days, longer and cooler nights, and the start of harvest. This time of year is both exciting and busy for us at Fort Berens. We check the grapes daily because we are now in the final weeks for the grapes to ripen before they are picked. Each varietal of grapes ripens at different times, generally starting mid-September and running through until about mid-October.

While this time of year is exciting, it is also a challenging time because we face many risks from birds and wildlife, as well as weather changes. As the grapes ripen, they become sweeter and very appealing to birds, mainly starlings and crows, as well as deer and even bears. In order to protect the grapes, we employ common farming practices including the use of fencing, netting and air cannons. The deer and bears are kept at bay with our fence. The use of air cannons is intended to scare away the birds. While we wish it wasn’t the case, the birds are active in the early morning, throughout the day, and into the evening, so we need to start the air cannons early in the morning, generally at dawn, and we turn them off at dusk.

In addition to the birds and wildlife at this time of the season, we also need to deal with dropping temperatures. Frost damage is a real risk to the vineyard, so we utilize a wind machine to protect the leaves and grapes from frost. The wind machine automatically turns on during the night when temperatures drop below freezing.

We utilize common farming practices allowable on ALR land (Agricultural Land Reserve land) to deal with these situations. Because we are on ALR land, there are also exceptions to the noise bylaws for agriculture properties.

While our vineyards are located in the ALR, we are also close to residential properties and we know that the loud cycles of both the air cannons and the wind machines can be startling or upsetting to our neighbours, both humans and pets. We live on the property, and we understand the impact of these loud machines, both on our family and our family pets. We want you to know that we are continually assessing our situation to see what we need to do each day in order to protect the crops. We are trying to minimize the use of both air cannons and the wind machines, and we only use them when it’s essential to do so.

The good news is that this is a short term situation, and once harvest is complete, we can all look forward to the end of these noisy tools, all while knowing that another vintage of delicious wines is just around the corner.

We thank our neighbours and the Lillooet community for the patience and understanding, and for all of your ongoing support.