Our July 2020 blog post gave an overview of what happens in the vineyard through the summer and how critical good vineyard management is. “The quality of the fruit and the health of the vines are ensured through good canopy management. The canopy is made up of all the green growth which arises from the…
Continue reading Summer in the Vineyard 2022
The holiday season is upon us, and one of our favorite things about this time of year is spending quality time with our family and friends while sharing fabulous wine and delicious food. With the return of Christmas parties and in person events, the holiday hustle can quickly turn stressful if you aren’t prepared! Fear…
Continue reading Hillside Holiday Wine & Food Pairings
Now what is happening in the vineyard?(are we there yet???!!!) The vines right now are in a lag phase when they soak up sunlight and slowly create the precursor substances that will contribute to ripening. Not much change is evident until veraison occurs. This is when the berry starts to change colour, soften and sweeten,…
Continue reading Preparing the Vineyard for Harvest
We faced harvest this year with no idea of what we might find. The “heat dome” in mid-June brought record temperatures at a highly unusual time for wine-growing regions. As this period is typically when we see “bloom” – flowering of these self-pollinating vines – I expected to see anomalies in both time of ripening…
Continue reading Hindsight 2021: How was Hillside’s Harvest?
Through the summer of 2010, Hillside hosted a number of “terroir tastings” from barrels, illustrating the similarities and differences between four blocks of 2009 Merlot from the Naramata bench and one Oliver block. The difference was obvious—almost a Sesame Street segment of “one of these things is not like the other” –the wine from Oliver…
Continue reading The down & “dirt”y on our single vineyard Merlots?
Of course I don’t hate Icewine!!! It truly is nectar of the gods, with its rich aromas, concentrated flavours and unctuous texture. It’s the intense ICEWINE-ness of icewine I hate. For decades whenever a non-Canadian was told we had a wine industry in Canada, icewine was evoked, along with images of harvesting in the dead…
Continue reading Why I Hate Icewine….
What is happening in the vineyard? Well…so much has happened since we last talked! The vines have gone from bare trunks with 2 or 3 shoots to a lush jungle of green. Bud Break occurred in the first week of May (about a week later than “normal”) pushing tiny leaves up out of the shoot…
Continue reading Summer In The Vineyard
Part 3 of 3: Why do we use oak in winemaking? The red edition… The use of oak in winemaking is so much more about structure than flavour: Red wines are aged (not “fermented”) in oak. The barrels are filled after fermentation and extended skin contact are completed—this is 20-30 days post-harvest. We try to…
Continue reading Why We Use Oak In Winemaking: Part 3