Search Results for: 2019 One sav new rztraminer

As we prepare for our favourite time of year—grape harvest, affectionately referred to as “crush” not for what it does to the crew and winemaker, but what we do to the grapes—we plan and strategize our use of fermentation vessels for each block of grapes. Because red and white wines are made very differently, we…

Part 2 of 3: Why do we use oak in winemaking? The white edition… Wooden barrels are used in winemaking for benefits that far outweigh simple flavour contribution from the oak. Wine changes by virtue of being in a small wooden vessel. These changes can be physical – the actual evaporation of small amounts ofwater/alcohol…

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…

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…

I recently travelled to Napa to attend the BC Wine Leader’s Forum. This is an event conceived ten years ago by UBC Okanagan, first through their School of Business and now through the Wine Research Center, as a means of connecting with the wine industry to assess how these groups can best work together. This…

The term intervention in winemaking spans a spectrum of practices. In theory, zero intervention would indicate that fruit is left on the vine and no wine is made. Maximum intervention would be…well let’s come back to that. The grapevine’s primary job, in fact its only desire, is to propagate. It wants to create the condition…

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,…

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…