It’s guaranteed. As soon as winemakers get together, one of the first topics of discussion is going to be the weather. Weather has so much impact on the health of grapes and, thus, on wine and, thus, on the industry that feeds winemakers. Weather, after all, is the whole point of vintage charts! And with climate change talks the focus of G7 powers this year, it follows that the subject would arise often during my recent visit to the south Okanagan, the hottest wine region in Canada.
I was invited by the Okanagan Wine Festivals Society to attend the 2017 BC Best of Varietal Awards in early May and to meet many of the feisty Okanagan winemakers who won some of those awards. Naturally, I asked about the weather. Everyone had an opinion. Then I asked, if climate change is not their primary anxiety, what is? What keeps them awake at night?
Here’s what they said …