A Year in the Life of a BC Winegrower

The reality is we met with several British Columbia winegrowers to get a sense of the many tasks to be completed in their vineyards. Some are shared while others are unique, but all will contribute to the 2021 vintage as it unfolds across the four seasons of the winegrowing calendar.

Our first stops are in Kamloops - Harper's Trail, East Kelowna - Summerhill Pyramid Winery, the Naramata Bench - Da Silva Vineyards, and north Oliver's Covert Farms Family Estate. We take you into the vineyards to look at some of the unsung tasks that support fine wine production, including pruning, tying down, mulching, growing cover crops and composting.

We also discuss regenerative farming and meet several Scottish Highland cows employed to enhance the vineyard soils at Covert Farms. You will see the Da Silva team hand-planting chardonnay vines, and in a rare clip, we learn what it takes to survive the cold Canadian winter at Harper's Trail as they unearth a precious cane meant to keep the vineyard going in case of a disastrously cold winter. Finally, we visit the hottest compost pile north of the 49 parallel at Summerhill Pyramid Winery.

As you will discover, winemaking is mainly winegrowing, and winegrowing is a lot of work. We'll be back in the summer to have a look at flowering, fruit set, shoot-thinning and a whole other set of tasks that make up a year in the life of a BC winegrower. 

Related: BC Bud Break Watch - LIve stream of a vineyard in East Kelowna.