The warm weather is becoming a problem for Quebec’s ice wine producers. With each mild day, their yields and profits are getting squeezed.
Right now, the grapes are weeks ahead of where they should be. With little juice left in them, the window to make wine is closing.
“The taste is good but unfortunately the cold didn't come when it was supposed to get here. So the grape had the time to dehydrate before freezing,” explained Denise Lavoie, owner of Domaine des Salamandres in Hemmingford.
The small winery had been banking on a good year for ice wine and the profits that come with it.
“We don't want to lose all our grapes because we are a small vineyard. We don't have a big volume but what we get we like to do something with it,” Lavoie said.
In order to make ice wine, grapes can't be harvested until temperatures reach -8C. But with above average temperuatres scheduled for the next few weeks, some producers are looking for a new plan.
Jean Joly owns Vignoble le Marathonien in Havelock. His award winning late harvest wine is made with the same Vidal grapes used for ice wine, but can be harvested sooner.
“The late harvest has less sugar than an ice wine but we can harvest it at -4C or -5C,” he said.
His problem: we may not see those temperatures until Christmas.
Joly says weather is always a big factor in winemaking, though at this time of year Quebec’s vintners are usually worrying about arctic chills and mounds of snow.
That’s not the case this year, but he and his counterparts are holding out hope that things will turn around.
