The Rural Voice, 2003-12, Page 12• ;T:
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8 THE RURAL VOICE
Robert Mercer
BC forest fires
vineyards than
Robert
Mercer was
editor of the
Broadwater
Market Letter
and
commentator
for 25 years.
When you drink your toast to Santa
Claus this year, give a thought to those
vintners who may have come close to
losing their whole crop, buildings and
home from the massive forest fires in
BC this summer.
At the time the news across Canada
was about the devastation of the wild
fires and how they were eating up the
forests at alarming rates. Then the
news stories turned to their effects on
the towns and villages, but there was
very little about the wildlife, cattle or
agriculture.
Two hundred homes may have
been burned down but one farm that
housed close to 100 horses and got
little coverage although the horse
community, through the special effort
of the Horse Council of British
Columbia, managed to activate a
group to help transport, house and feed
these horses and more.
Elsewhere farms were affected,
cattle moved and companion animals
evacuated. The vineyards and the
orchards were no exception, except
you can't move vines or trees in
advance of an out -of -control forest fire
that eventually burned close to 50,000
acres.
The Okanagan Mountain fire
caused four vineyards to be evacuated ,
from the area southeast of Kelowna.
By August 21/22 it swept down on the
city and the valley was full of smoke.
It blocked out sunlight and brushed the
growing grapes with the musty,
clinging odour of ponderosa pine
wood -smoke.
Wine is a product that sells on its
taste. Good wine has to be very
selective, subtle and without a
problem. Wine like tea or scotch,
picks up its flavour from the soil,
water and varietal genetics of its
spared more
theg harmed
parental feedstock.
Wine also changes with aging so
that a wine now that shows no problems
could begin to exhibit influence
obtained from the smoke, ash or even
fire retardant during the two to three
weeks that the valley was swirling in
smoke every hour of every day.
So far the claims to the crop
insurance program have not been
massive. It is expected that the acreage
affected may only be 330 as a total of
damage to the crop. On top of this
there is the potential for further losses
where the vines were burned or
damaged. The payout on that claim
will not be made until the following
year when the hardy grapevines will
show,whether the damage was
temporary or permanent.
In some cases the questionable
smoke -damaged grapes have gone to
the vintner and he/she has then
determined, after the crush, whether
the grapes were usable or not.
The actual number of burned acres
for total losses claimed have been
small. However, one vineyard
sustained heavy building damage
including the home and irrigation
equipment in the field.
On the positive side this has been a
great year for the Ice Wine with the
majority of the available grapes
throughout the Okanagan Valley
picked early in November. The cold
snap allowed grapes to be picked three
nights in a row.
If you want to get a better idea of
how the fire affected one particular
vineyard, take a look at the website for
St. Hubertus Winery. These people
took the worst hit of the fire and have
come out with gusto. Even though
their production will be cut in half this
year they have two new labels.
A very poignant statement as one
new wine is "Firemen's Red" and the
other "Glowing Amber". Take a look
at the photo shots on the web to see
what disaster looks like as it advances
on your life's work. (www.st-
hubertus.bc.ca). And if you feel like
helping the relief fund, you can even
do it with a bottle of the above. Happy
Christmas.0