The Okanagan’s hot and dry summer has enabled Jackson Triggs winery to launch B.C.’s earliest-ever harvest of grapes intended for table wine on August 27.
Wine makers have launched harvests of grapes intended for sparkling wine earlier than that, B.C. Wine Institute spokesperson Lindsay Kelm told Business in Vancouver.
Indeed, both Sperling Vineyards and Summerhill Pyramid Winery were picking grapes for sparkling wine last week, she said.
“But I went through reports of past vintages and I can’t find anything that shows an earlier harvest for vinifera grapes for table wine,” Kelm added.
Jackson Triggs wine maker Derek Kontkanen told Business in Vancouver that his vineyard team started picking sauvignon blanc grapes from its Bear Cub Vineyard on the Osoyoos Lake Bench.
“It’s a warmer site and the sugar-ripeness and the flavour profile were right what we were looking for so we decided to go ahead and harvest,” he said.
Jackson Triggs is owned by the world’s largest wine producer, Constellation Brands Inc. (STZ:NYSE), and it sources about 1,000 acres of grapes in B.C.
About half of those acres produce grapes for white wines, said Kontkanen, who is in charge of all of Jackson Triggs’ white, sparkling, rose and ice wines.
“We have about 180 acres of sauvignon blanc grapes and about half of that I will have picked by the end of next week,” he said August 28.
In previous years, he launched Jackson Triggs’ B.C. sauvignon blanc harvest between September 6 and 14, said Kontkanen, who is conducting his 10th harvest for the company.
He normally then harvests:
- Chardonnay in the second, third and fourth weeks of September;
- Viognier at the end of September and into October;
- Gewurztraminer and Semillon in early October; and
- Riesling at the end of October.
Ice wine grape picking tends to start in November.
