The Niagara grape harvest is just beginning, but early projections are for a top-shelf vintage.
However, the grape-growing industry may have to contend with a dwindling pool of committed buyers to whom it can sell its harvest — which would mean product withering on the vine.
“So far what we have picked is of very good quality and also the yields are satisfying,” said Albrecht Seeger of NOTL’s Seeger Vineyards.
“I think it is going to be, with a little bit of luck, a great harvest.”
Seeger’s optimism stems from a hot summer that featured a lot of rain in Niagara.
More good news for growers is the hot start to September. Forecasts indicating the heat will continue late into the month.
Seeger hopes it will extend even further into the fall to prolong the great conditions growers have been experlencing all summer.
“With a nice dry fall, the grapes stay dry, the grapes don’t break down, it’s a lot easier just to go in with the machine and pick them,” he said.
The NOTL grape harvest normally continues into late October.
The Grape Growers of Ontario, which represents over 500 growers in the province, agrees that this year’s harvest will be a good one.
“It’s not a bumper crop but it is of great quality,” confirmed CEO Debbie Zimmerman.
Zimmerman, however, is concerned about some of that quality going to waste as a result of wineries backing out of agreements to purchase Niagara grapes.
“We do have some grapes unsold,” she said.
A main concern for the association is the high quality red vinifera that’s not being purchased this year — grapes of the popular merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc varieties, to name a few.
The reason for wineries backing out of sales, said Zimmerman, is because they are purchasing cheaper, imported wines to use in their bottles (under the Vintners Quality Alliance of Ontario, VQA-certified wines are to be made with 100 per cent Ontario-grown grapes).
“They buy bulk wine on the open market and bring it into Ontario. We want to be able to put more Ontario grapes into that bottle of wine,” she said.
“This year, with the climate conditions we’re having, we’ll have a stellar quality crop and red viniferas not sold. That’s a travesty.”
When asked what happens to the unsold grapes, Zimmerman said, “most often, they are dropped on the ground.”
Zimmerman is encouraged, however, by recent government policy changes that will increase the amount of government support wineries can apply for through VQA Ontario, and a growing effort to establish a nation-wide VQA program.
Last year, she said, there was a cap on how much financial support a winery could get out of the VQA support program.
“This year, it’s uncapped,” she said. “So, a winery that was getting $150,000 maybe last year is probably getting over $400,000 this year. And that is significant.”
The bottom line here, said Zimmerman, is that more conversations need to continue to establish policies and programs that save Ontario grapes from the garbage heap.
“What we’re saying is we, in particular, are concerned for growers, and we’re working with the government to ensure that we’re not back here next year with grapes unsold.”
