There is a beautiful, simple understanding of plants: they have roots, stems, branches, leaves, flowers and fruit, in various combinations, but grape vines, like all the rest, are understood to grow from […]
Reversing the Water Flow in Vineyards
Ah, The Sunny Vineyards of the Okanagan!
The vines spend over 6 months in the fog, though. So, that’s half of everything they do! It’s hard to imagine that their roots aren’t reacting to the fog, or that the […]
North Okanagan Terroir
It puzzled me for a long time, what terroir means in the minds of winemakers in the Okanagan. After all, they say it means the expression of the land and its aspect […]
Some Things Ripen, Some Don’t
It will be a couple months yet for these grapes in Vernon. If they make it. The weather is turning cold. 23 or 24% sugar is a high bar. Perhaps, we should […]
The Problem With Stock Photos
There’s this important article about low wages in vineyards in the Okanagan: https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/opinion/opinion-mla-ben-stewart-apparently-wants-bc-workers-to-be-paid-as-little-as-possible-4206374?fbclid=IwAR0D42Rq3CmDC5WqDXd3HY7Hog-J_Y8-qxKPEAFopi5OJ4GfN9BDN4VlAiA This image is attached to it: I don’t know where Carlos Bezz took this image, but this isn’t a […]
Crazy for Wine
The Penticton Western News is really into wine these days. Here’s a screenshot from an article from May: How great is that. Pandosy arrived in 1859, camped at Ellison, froze in the […]
The Best Wine Takes Finesse
Grapes have the ability to deliver nutrients, water and sugar to any point in the plant at which they are needed. It’s not just a matter of raising the vines into the […]
Settler Culture = Terroir
Here’s the grape terroir in the Similkameen Valley. That’s right. There are no grape plants. They would die here. Should one plant them (and someone has across the road behind us), one […]
Of Wine, War and Peace
Wine is largely made in laboratories. What is grown in the field is grapes. The result is a decreased ability for the plant to distribute potassium where needed. The additional remove of […]
Definitely Not Terroir
I think there’s too much money in this country. Vineyards get draped to keep off birds. At the same time, a native berry, Oregon grape, goes through the winter without appreciable harm […]
Okanagan Okanogan 