Extreme cold both bad and good for Ontario wine

Southern and south-western Ontario is one of the two main wine grape growing regions in Canada, with the Niagara region being the most productive in the central province. The Okanagan valley of west coast British Columbia is the other main wine area in Canada.

However, this year much of Canada, with the exception of the west coast, has been subject to unusually extreme cold weather with several periods in the wine growing region of sothern Ontario at temperatures often between -20 and -25 C.

Several vineyards are reporting that Syrah and Sauvignon-Blanc vines are severely damaged and will likely produce very little or not at all in 2014.

Karl Lonsbery, the winemaker at Mastronardi Estate wines in Essex county in south-western Ontario says. “Merlots, Syrah, your warmer climate varieties, are basically going to be toast because of their track record with cold weather.”

Lonsbery won’t have a final tally until March but said it looks like about half the buds won’t produce grapes this year.  “Hopefully, our baco vidals, our hybrids, will be able to withstand this temperature more so,” he said. “So we still have hope there. But for the most part, with this temperature, for what we’ve had, it’s not looking too good at this point.”

Experts examining several vinyards In Niagara and elsewhere have found in some cases, up to 86% of the Merlot buds have been damaged.

While several vineyards are reporting severe cold damage, the true extent of the bitter winter on the 2014 crop won’t be known for several months yet.

Because 2013 was a bumper crop year, shortages of wine are not expected, although some producers say they will increase prices this year to compensate for losses.

Meanwhile, it’s expected the ice wine harvest across Canada- Ontario and BC, will be very good.  However, growers in Ontario say the extreme cold has meant delays as their pressing equipment wasn’t designed for such extreme cold and would break if used.

Ontario produces approximately 750,000 litres of icewine annually, a small percentage of the annual 22 million litres of VQA (vintners quality assurance ) wine.