Okanagan wine makers brace for potential effects of wildfire smoke on this year's vintage

Wine makers in British Columbia's Okanagan region are waiting to find out how the wildfire season will affect this year's vintage. 

"We had a ... few days where we had ashes on the tables and the cars outside, so those ashes would have landed on the grapes as well," said Severine Pinte, winemaker with Le Vieux Pin Winery in Oliver.

This past summer was the province's worst wildfire season on record, with heavy smoke blanketing parts of the Interior for weeks.  

But Pinte says the wildfires this year weren't as close to her winery as the ones in 2015, which did produce a smoky taint for the wines bottled that year — especially for cabernet francs.

"I think it's a bit too early to say," she said. "For now the whites and rosés, they're fine, and we're just about to start the reds."

Different production methods

Because the grape skins are discarded when white wines and rosés are fermented, Pinte says the smoke wouldn't affect the taste of the wine unless it had penetrated the grape's flesh.

This year, she says, that hasn't been the case. 

But in three weeks the winery will begin producing its red wine, which does include the grape skins. 

The factor that is more likely to affect the vintage, Pinte says, was the cooler temperatures the blanket of smoke caused.

It's not unusual for temperatures in the Okanagan to reach up to 40 C during peak summer. But this year the smoke meant those temperatures dropped to about 29 C. 

The smoke also blocked the UV light, which she says also affects the vines. 

Still, Pinte is confident 2017 will be a good vintage. She says that's because the smaller grapes will be more concentrated. 

'We're really optimistic'

Wine producers in the Lower Mainland's Fraser Valley aren't as concerned about the affect of wildfire smoke on their bottles. 

The Lower Mainland only got a couple of weeks of smoky weather, and overall the region had hotter weather than usual. 

"June started off a little cold, but July and August the weather's been spectacular — lots of heat, which has been really really good for the fruit," said Brian Ensor, general manager of Chaberton Winery in Langley. 

"We're really optimistic."

Chaberton's wine maker, Andrea Lee, says the wildfire smoke did spark some concern for the vintage early in the summer. 

But Lee says the worst of the smoke didn't come during the key ripening period for the grapes. And the sunny, warm temperatures that have continued into October have been helpful. 

"For now everything that we have received is pretty stellar," she said. 

With files from Carla Oliveira