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Anthony Gismondi on Wine

As Crush 25 concludes, there is at least one positive note in B.C.

wine country: we set a record for growing degree days (GDD) with no heat spikes. GDD measures heat accumulation used to predict plant development, calculated by averaging daily high and low temperatures and subtracting a specific "base temperature," below which development does not occur. This has resulted in a generous harvest, larger than expected, filling all the tanks after last year's disastrous 2024 deep freeze. On the other hand, the ongoing strike by government workers is slowly destroying the public infrastructure that sells wine, whether at wholesale, retail stores, or in restaurants. As I write this, many hospitality businesses are on the verge of closing, which will impact everyone—whether you're in the domestic or import wine business or an end consumer. Our October newsletter is out, it is free, and currently has a 72% open rate among our loyal readers, to whom we are grateful. We won't run out of wines to review; we only hope that a solution to the current chaos, which has held us hostage, will be found soon. Meanwhile, we are diligently working on our annual sparkling wine and champagne reports, along with some new top tens for the holidays in November and December.

Written By: ag
Anthony Gismondi
Anthony Gismondi

Anthony Gismondi is a Canadian wine journalist and one of North America's most influential voices in wine. For over 30 years, he has been the wine columnist for The Vancouver Sun. The twice-weekly column is distributed across Canada through the Postmedia Network to millions of readers. In addition, Anthony hosts the BC Food & Wine Radio Show, broadcast in 25 markets across B.C. and available as a podcast on major platforms. He launched Gismondionwine.com in 1997, attracting one million monthly users from 114 countries. It continues to be a valuable resource full of tasting notes, intelligent wine stories and videos for the trade and consumers. Conversations with wine personalities are available on his  YouTube Channel.