A changing climate means grape growers and winemakers need to expect the unexpected come harvest season.Rostislav_Sedlacek/iStockPhoto / Getty Images
While Labour Day signals the return to school days for students and families, it’s traditionally been a launching off point for the annual grape harvest in Canadian vineyards. Even with classic conditions, the harvest season is filled with anticipation and anxiety, but a changing climate means grape growers and winemakers need to expect the unexpected.
For Ontario’s Henry of Pelham estate winery, a strong focus on the earlier-ripening baco noir grape and sparkling wine means it is always amongst the first to pick. By stepping up its grape sampling activities clipping clusters randomly through different vineyards, the winemaking team explains they can measure sugar accumulation and acid depletion to decide when it’s time to move. This year, the lab results have them looking to start harvest during the Labour Day weekend -- which is earlier than usual, explains Henry of Pelham co-owner Daniel Speck. Cooler and wetter summer conditions slowed growth in Niagara’s vineyards after a mild winter and early spring kicked the season to a promising start.
Pinot noir grapes for the winery’s Cuvée Catherine traditional method sparkling wine and baco noir from younger vines are expected to be the first grapes to reach the winery. The ripeness and quality of the grapes, and the long-range weather forecasts, will be continually monitored throughout the harvest, which commonly lasts until mid- to late-November. (Grapes reserved for icewine production need to wait for the right conditions, temperatures dropping below minus-8 C, usually in December.)
Other Niagara producers are preparing their teams to start picking the following week. Grapes for chardonnay and pinot noir, two of the region’s earliest varieties, are expected to be ripe for harvest around the third week of September, weather permitting.
In the Okanagan and Similkameen valleys, winemakers will be learning a new routine this harvest. A severe cold snap decimated the region’s vineyards in January, forcing wineries to look for grapes in other areas. Suitable grapes from Oregon, Washington state and elsewhere have been sourced to ensure wineries have product to sell while their vineyards recover, either through rejuvenation of healthy vines or replanting vines that were killed by the frost.
British Columbia wineries will be replacing lost crops with grapes or juice from alternate sources. Government regulations have changed to allow the temporary sale of replacement wines made with grapes from outside of the province from April 1, 2025 to March 31, 2026.
Other winemaking regions are confronted with change during the 2024 vintage. Above average temperatures in July in many wine regions across the northern hemisphere mean that wineries are already deep into their harvests. Wineries in Sicily started processing chardonnay and pinot grigio grapes during the fourth week of July, 12 days earlier than usual, while vintners in Hungary are harvesting earlier than ever after coping with the hottest July on record. The muscat, furmint and harslevelu grapes grown in the Tokaj wine region will start being picked this month. In a typical year, the region would begin harvest in September.
Winemakers in the Napa Valley were amongst the first to pick grapes in California, bringing in sauvignon blanc for white wine and chardonnay and pinot noir for sparkling wine, August 5. It was a quick start to the season, but harvest reports show grapes were picked earlier in 2015 and 2021.