Seventy-six percent of producers said extreme weather had an impact on their operations over the past five years, with 34 per cent saying they were significantly impacted.

In Nova Scotia, the last decade has seen an increased number of hurricanes, late frosts, drought, drier springs, wetter falls and a polar vortex. The impact can be seen across all types of agriculture and producers find themselves pivoting to meet the challenges head on.

Lisa Jenereaux, co-owner of Spurr Brothers Farms in the Annapolis Valley, says they’ve seen the gamut when it comes to weather and admits it’s been challenging.

As a fifth-generation fruit farmer, her family has grown apples and potatoes in the region for decades.

“Our farm has always been diversified,” she says. “If you have a lot of different stuff, then if you have a bad year in one thing, you can hopefully make it up with something else. It kind of levels off.”

She says that hasn’t been the case for the last five years.

“We’ve had losses. They’re more significant, and they’re affecting many crops.”

While the federal government offers some support to farmers, Jenereaux says the programs aren’t suited to most Nova Scotia growers, who are almost penalized for being diversified.

She says insurance helps but you can’t go back to that well repeatedly without repercussions, such as increased rates.

They knew they had to do something different.

• RELATED: Outdoor weather affects indoor crops, too

Go big or do something different

Spurr Brothers used to farm over 200 acres of potatoes, and they considered expanding.

“You either have to be niche, or big. We had to decide where to put our focus,” says Jenereaux.

When they looked at the cost to “go big,” Jenereaux and her partners (brother, William Spurr, and cousin, Katie Campbell) decided to look for something outside of agriculture.

They opened a farm market and began to make and sell hard cider.

The market was a relatively easy pivot, she explains. They already had a small farm market where they sold apples and other vegetables, and Spurr had been making cider as a hobby for several years. They built a new building, added a greenhouse, created public spaces and made it an attractive destination for families.

Jenereaux says it’s worked out better than expected in some ways. Not only have they created a hub for the community with family-focused weekend events, but if the strawberry crop ripens too quickly due to a heat wave, they can pick and freeze them for use in cider later. Before that option existed, the crop would have been lost.

She says they focus on ways to mitigate the worst of the impacts caused by weather.

For example, it’s important to manage the amount of water around fruit trees, because the root stock can’t tolerate sitting in water. “In fruit trees, we always do tile drainage. We’ve had more and more weather events with massive rainfall, and floods are more of an issue,” says Jenereaux.

To combat wind, which could easily flatten a modern orchard, all new plantings use a trellis system.

“We put the posts closer together, and every post is in the ground as deep as possible, no exceptions. If the post won’t go in, we’re getting the backhoe and digging that post in. We’re using more wires. There’s no room for error.”

Another change over the last few years is that now all the orchards are irrigated.

“It’s been getting a lot hotter a lot earlier,” she explains. “Spring used to be our wet time, but we’re seeing a lot of dry spells in May and June.”

In the past she wouldn’t turn on irrigation until July, maybe late June. “Now there are times in late-May when I’m thinking ‘I better get this irrigation going.”

She says water is always top of mind now when they plant a new field or orchard.

“You might have chanced it before, we’d have a couple of weeks of dry weather and then you’re going to get rain,” she says. “But now, you could go for four weeks without any significant rainfall. So, when we’re planting that’s our highest priority. Do we have a pond big enough, do we have a water source large enough? It’s not just supplemental anymore, you might have to water your crop for the entire season, and that’s a big shift.”

On the flip side is the cold. Late spring frosts can kill a berry crop or reduce the apple yield. While not much can cost-effectively be done in the orchards, Jenereaux says they use fabric covers and overhead irrigation on the strawberry fields to mitigate damage.

Long-term pasture management pays off

Jenereaux isn’t the only producer noticing issues with water. On Nova Scotia’s Northumberland shore, John Duynisveld, and his daughter Maria, of Holdanca Farms also worry about water.

Holdanca Farms is the 2024 recipient of The Environmental Stewardship Award (TESA) from Canadian Cattles Association. Duynisveld says his father started managing the farm with a focus on the environment in 1988 when he implemented rotational grazing.

And, while weather has always been a variable, he’s noticed how it’s changed in the last few years.

“We get extremes of dry or wet weather. In 2020 our rainfall levels were 25 per cent less than normal,” he says. “From June to September, we had a significant drought… by our standards.”

He says the summer was so dry beef and sheep producers started feeding hay in August.

It was the first year since 1988 that he had to feed supplemental feed before January.

“We got close to normal grazing, but we had to vary paddock size based on the number of cows, how much grass was ahead and to allow grass time to recover.”

It was the opposite in 2023. The summer was very wet, and the sun never shone.

“We couldn’t make hay,” he said. “Winter feed is typically hay-bale grazing. In 2023 we didn’t hay, but we had a huge amount of leftover forage on the pastures and continued to graze until February 7, until our first major snowfall came. We still had feed left on the fields after that, and they were back on pasture the 7th of April,” says Duynisveld.

He says the decades of rotational grazing and pasture management has helped build resiliency on his land. “It helps me raise a good product and it reduces personal stress.”

The pastures support approximately 25 head of his own cattle, around 100 ewes plus lambs, and he provides custom pasturing for another 60 to 100 head of cattle for other farmers.

Additionally, he grazes about 5,000 chickens, 600 turkeys and a couple hundred laying hens. Theres’s also between 150 to 160 pastured pigs.

But the effect of changing weather is about more than enough pasture to graze.

“We’re (also) seeing changes with parasite loads. In 2023 we had more rain, less frost and more parasites were able to overwinter. There was nothing to set them back,” Duynisveld says.

Increased summer heat is something Duynisveld also takes seriously.

“The last two summers we’ve had the longest period of heat stress. In June and July, we had two to four weeks in a row, versus two, three, four days. It impacts productivity.

“We’re changing fences and pasture layouts to incorporate more shade,” he explains. “Fields that are more wet, we’re looking at ditching and planting shelter belts with controlled access. The ditches cross the fields, and a series of ponds collect the water. There’s potential to apply this strategy to over 100 acres.”

On the flip side of dry summers is a delayed winter.

“Our winters are milder, which on one hand means we can extend grazing.”

Duynisveld says in the 1990s he couldn’t put a fence post in the ground after November because it was frozen solid. This year he could put a post in anywhere until January.

“In the fall, things are growing later. Our last 10 years of moving sheep, even in mid-November we’re seeing an inch or inch-and-a-half of growth. That’s much later than before.”

But he worries about the lack of snow cover.

“We were dry from early August to late November. The water table hasn’t recovered. We have a system and it’s normally flowing steady this time of year. Right now it’s barely a trickle. This is the flip side of not having the snowpack and the spring dampness.”

His holistic approach means he’s pivoting to adapt to the challenges by letting some pastures over-mature and go a little heavy. He looks at the other species living there for validation he’s doing the right thing.

“My daughter does ‘bio-blitzes’ to identify living organisms. We have well over 1,000 species, 140 native pollinators. Small changes help us all with overall resilience to the extremes in weather.”

Some like it hot

The lack of water and heat are a boon for some producers.

Back in the Annapolis Valley, in an area known as the Gaspereau Valley, farms like Luckett Vineyards are noticing the changes in weather too.

Vineyard manager Marcel Kolb came to the area 19 years ago from Switzerland. He’s noticed a change since he arrived, but says it’s gotten more significant in the past five or six years.

“We used to talk about global warming, now we look at the extremes, we brace ourselves,” he says.

Wind, rain, heat, cold, too much, too little, or simply at the wrong time, can cost a crop.

For vineyards, warmer weather later into the fall and earlier in the spring, extends the growing season. Kolb says budding starts earlier, and the harvest can run later.

“Now we’re hoping for snow (as) it’s a water source (to) fill our reserves and ponds. This wasn’t a concern 20 years ago.”

While the lack of water is a concern, the area where Lucketts is located is on heavy loam soil. Kolb says new vineyards must install tile drainage to protect the vine roots, which extend deep, from too much water.

“Two years ago, we had 250-280 mm of rain, and we couldn’t get rid of it fast enough. In 2024 we had almost no rain for over two months. Should we have had irrigation? Maybe. It might have improved the overall yield, but it isn’t feasible yet in the vineyard.”

Planting clovers, grasses and legumes between the vines helps improve soil drainage and nutrient management through organic matter. These areas also provide habitat for beneficial insects and birds.

While the lack of snow is an issue, extreme temperature swings are more challenging and harder to manage.

“The polar vortex was a perfect storm. Two weeks earlier we had warm weather, Mother Nature had started to wake up, then the cold air hit.”

The result was devastating. Not only did producers lose the year’s crop, but whole sections of vines had to be replanted.

Late spring frosts are a worry, but producers mitigate them with a variety of tricks.

“The buds are swelling then, and a frost can cause damage,” says Kolb. “We can’t do row covers because they’re difficult in a vineyard. Some producers have installed windmills or use sprayers. We have automated propane heaters. We can’t do the whole vineyard, but we can use them in the higher-quality areas.”

Changing temperatures mean a different type of pivot for vintners.

“Over the last 10 years, we’ve seen a lot of new varieties, such as Chardonnays and Rieslings, which are more adaptive to the weather and are better designed for our area.”

He adds that change can benefit consumers because more choice is locally available.

“These days you can get everything from sparkling to ice wines and everything in between.”

Kolb often thinks about where they’re headed in the next 10 years.

“Change is happening, everybody can see it. It (will be) interesting to see how we can adapt. We have to make crops more resilient.”

Weather data points to climate variances

The anecdotal evidence of hotter, drier summers, more frequent heavy rain events and milder winters is backed by data collected by Environment and Climate Canada.

Ian Hubbard, a meteorologist with the department, says the weather is definitely changing.

Data from Greenwood, in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley, shows that from 2001 to 2024 the humidex jumped over 42 C 10 times. Three of those events were in 2018, one in 2019 and another in 2022.

“In a typical summer we’d have a couple days where we talk about these kinds of humidex values,” Hubbard says. “We’ve seen an increase in the number of consecutive days the past few summers. That affects people, animals and vegetation.”

Ironically, 2018 and 2019 also saw rainfall significantly higher than average.

However, rainfall was less than the annual average in seven of the last 10 years. In 2023, Greenwood reported its driest summer in nearly a decade.

Hubbard says springs have been getting drier, pointing out that 2023 was exceptionally dry for the region. However, in July of that year there was significant rainfall of over 200 mm.

“That was rarer than a one-in-100-year storm,” he says. “The last comparable storm with that much rain would have been Hurricane Beth in 1971.”

What really stands out for him are the number of named storms in the Atlantic Basin. This is where hurricanes form and while many of them don’t make it this far north, the area has seen an increase in the number of storms reaching Atlantic Canada.

The hurricane season runs from June 1 to the end of November and is at its peak in September and October during prime harvest season for many crops including apples, grains and grapes.

“In a normal year, there would be 14 named storms in the basin which would strengthen to become hurricanes,” he says. “This past season there were 18. The last several years there have been at least 14.”

Hubbard says while the numbers may fluctuate from year to year, they do expect future storms to become stronger, contain more rain and more wind.

Other extreme events in the region included the arctic blast in February of 2023. The area saw temperatures plummet to -25 C when a mass of cold air sat over the region for days. The extreme cold came on the heels of a week of mild temperatures. Reports show the rapid temperature switch damaged many crops.

Overall, Hubbard says the data paints a picture of extreme weather occurring more often.

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Vineyards nationwide have enough wine in domestic storage to fill 859 Olympic swimming pools, Rabobank said this week in its third-quarter wine report.

“That’s over two billion litres of wine, or over 2.8 billion bottles,” said RaboResearch analyst Pia Piggott, adding that the inventory was depressing prices, particularly for commercial red wines.

Ties with biggest trading partner China deteriorated in 2020 after Australia called for an inquiry into the origins of COVID, triggering reprisals by Beijing, such as anti-dumping duties on Australian wine and barley.

The curbs battered the wine industry, with exports to China shrinking to just A$8.1 million (C$7 million) in the year to June, from a peak of A$1.2 billion for the year to January 2020, when the pandemic began to take hold.

“No other market can quickly compensate for the China market,” said Lee McLean, chief executive of industry body Australian Grape and Wine, thanks to Chinese drinkers’ obsession with red wine.

Diversification into markets such as Britain, Europe, the U.S. and elsewhere in Asia would take time to yield results, McLean added.

China, traditionally an avid purchaser of Australian commodities, including iron ore, resumed buying coal and timber this year after tension between the two has eased since the centre-left Labor party won power in Australia last year.

The recent removal of tariffs on Australian barley has fed hopes for an early easing of the five-year tariffs China imposed on Australian wine in 2021.

But even if the tariffs are lifted this year and Chinese wine consumption recovers, Australia’s wine industry will take at least two years to work through the surplus, Piggott said, as the curbs had coincided with an exceptional growing season.

“This coincided with COVID, logistics bottlenecks and inflation, which were major hurdles in the way of plans to grow and diversify exports,” she added.

“Thus, two-plus years into the tariff, prices of Australian commercial red grapes have significantly declined, and oversupply issues remain.”

Australian wine exports declined a tenth in value to A$1.87 billion and one per cent in volume to 621 million litres in the year ended June, Wine Australia’s Export Report said in July.

This week, Australia’s Treasury Wine Estate, the world’s biggest standalone winemaker, reported a drop in its profits, hurt by lower sales.

Wine sales will not return to the same level for the company even if the high tariffs are dropped, its chief executive said in May.

The crisis has made quality red wines more affordable for Australian domestic consumers, however.

“All we can say is next time you go to buy a bottle of wine, make sure it’s Australian,” McLean said.

— Praveen Menon is a Reuters correspondent in Sydney.

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The International Organisation for Vine and Wine (OIV) said on Thursday that global wine exports in 2022 stood at 37.6 billion euros (C$55.6 billion) as export prices rose 15 per cent on average compared to 2021.

Global wine consumption fell one per cent, to 232 million hectolitres (mhl).

“The war in Ukraine and the associated energy crisis, together with the global supply chain disruptions, lead to a spike in costs in production and distribution,” the OIV said in a statement posted on its website.

Wine exports in 2022 were severely impacted by high inflation and global supply chain problems that led to a significant slowdown of sea freight, it added.

In terms of output, the OIV slightly lowered its estimate for 2022 wine production to 258 mhl from its initial estimate of 259.9 mhl released last October, still about one per cent below the previous year’s output.

The OIV pegged the world’s vineyard area in 2022 at 7.28 million hectares, down 0.4 per cent from 2021, led by Spain — at 955,000 hectares, or 13.1 per cent of the world’s total, and down 0.8 per cent from 2021 — followed by France, China, Italy and Turkey.

Wine production in 2022, however, was led by Italy — at 49.8 mhl, or 19.3 per cent of the world’s total, and down one per cent from 2021 — followed by France, Spain, the U.S. and Australia.

The U.S. led the world in consumption at 15 per cent, followed by France, Italy, Germany and the U.K. The U.S. also led the world in wine imports by volume, followed by Germany, the U.K., France and the Netherlands.

Canada ranked 27th on the OIV’s list of wine-producing nations in 2022, at 692,000 hl, up from 656,000 in 2021. It ranked 12th in wine exports by volume last year, mainly in lower-value bulk wine, at 2.129 mhl, and sixth in imports, at 4.178 mhl.

The OIV doesn’t yet offer data for Canada’s vineyard surface area or wine consumption for 2022. Canada’s 2021 figure for vineyard area was marked at 13,191 hectares, or No. 50 among countries; its wine consumption in 2021 was pegged at 4.22 mhl, for No. 12.

— Reporting for Reuters by Sybille de La Hamaide in Paris. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

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Jason Hanson expects his crews may only harvest five tons of grapes, including his Chardonnay and Gamay varieties, down from the 25 to 30 tons his fields yielded last year. The birds can have the rest, he said, as the fruit has likely absorbed too much smoke to be salvaged and would produce wine that tastes like a “wet ashtray.”

“With the dense smoke that we’ve had at the ground level for so long now, almost everything has to be affected or damaged,” Hanson said. “I have a yearly fight with the birds. This year I’ll just let them win.”

The historic wildfires across the western U.S., home to the bulk of the country’s vineyards and major producers of crops from apples to zucchini, have ravaged farmers and ranchers already hard hit by the Trump administration’s trade wars and demand disruptions from the coronavirus pandemic.

Atmospheric smoke has obscured grape-ripening sunlight while ash has coated green beans, cauliflower and other produce in nearby fields just days before scheduled harvesting. Poor air quality is slowing harvesting as farms limit fieldwork hours and some run low on particle-filtering masks due to the coronavirus pandemic.

For wineries, the wildfires have only deepened recent wounds. A drop in restaurant traffic and smaller crowds visiting vineyards for tastings had already been sapping key sources of revenue.

Many tasting rooms remain shuttered due to fire and smoke risks, while grapes awaiting harvest in storied wine regions such as Willamette Valley or California’s Napa and Sonoma Valleys may be damaged or ruined entirely.

Oregon, Washington state and California together produce about 90 per cent of all U.S. wine. The true impact on the US$70 billion industry will not be known for months as the typical wildfire season is only just beginning, and crop damage can vary greatly from field to field.

“You have a far greater potential for tainted wine the closer you are to the fire,” said Eric Jensen, owner of Booker and My Favorite Neighbor wineries in California’s Paso Robles region.

“We’re testing constantly and we believe in Paso we’ll be blessed because of the distance that the smoke traveled to get to us. But in Napa and Sonoma, the proximity is causing issues.”

Smoke has blanketed much of the U.S. West as fires have charred nearly five million acres, but some wine areas such as Napa, Sonoma, Santa Cruz and Monterey have been much closer to blazes than areas like Santa Barbara and Paso Robles.

Labs overwhelmed

Laboratories that test grapes for smoke contamination are overwhelmed this year, with some taking up to a month to return results, instead of less than a week normally. Vineyards use that data to gauge whether to harvest or not.

Winemakers and scientists are still learning how smoke can affect wine grapes and how the effects can be mitigated.

Australia has been at the forefront of research, as drought-fueled bushfires have riled its industry for years. But studies at American universities have ramped up over the past five years, helped by U.S. Department of Agriculture funding, as climate change is expected to increasingly impact U.S. wineries.

It is too soon to judge how the wildfires will impact 2020 vintages, but harvested grape supplies will likely be smaller, said Glenn Proctor, partner and broker at California-based Ciatti Global Wine + Grape Brokers.

Winemakers short of newly harvested grapes are expected to buy bulk wine from the 2019 season for blending with what is available from this year, he said. Fear of reputational risk will prevent winemakers from bottling and selling any wine with an unpleasant smoke taste, he said.

Ample supplies coming into this season should offset any shortfall from this year’s harvest so work-from-home Zoom Happy Hours will likely not notice any impact, he said.

“I still think we’re going to see some good wines coming out of 2020 because the growing conditions were great through the season,” Proctor said.

“The fires have put a question mark on everything but I’m still hopeful that most of those wines will play out.”

— Reporting for Reuters by Karl Plume in Chicago.

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California was hit by nearly 11,000 lightning strikes in 72 hours, sparking 367 fires, nearly two dozen of them major, as the state suffered a record heat wave, authorities said.

A group of fires covering over 46,000 acres near the city of Vacaville raced through hills and mountains destroying 50 homes and other structures.

The city of 100,000, about 50 km southwest of Sacramento, was under a partial evacuation order after flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fire burned some homes, leaving dead livestock among the properties or wandering around, a Reuters photographer said.

“This is my cousin’s home in Vacaville that just burned to the ground,” tweeted podcast show host Robert Hanna with a picture of a house in flames.

The blazes follow devastating fires across northern California in 2017 that killed 44, wiped out numerous wineries and destroyed nearly 9,000 homes and other structures.

“In the last 72 hours we’ve experienced an historic lightning siege,” said California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokeswoman Lynnette Round.

So-called red flag high winds are fanning fires caused by rain-less dry-lightning storms, sending flames racing through scrub and woodland parched by record-breaking heat and low humidity.

Another group of fires called the SCU Lightning Complex about 30 km east of Palo Alto more than doubled in size overnight and is now burning over 85,000 acres. The CZU August Lightning Complex has grown to over 10,000 acres and forced evacuations around 20 km south of the city.

Governor Gavin Newsom has declared an emergency over the fires and said he requested 375 fire engines from out of state with Arizona, Nevada and Texas sending assistance.

— Reporting for Reuters by Steven Lam; additional reporting by Sharon Bernstein and Andrew Hay.

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The Salcheto story and his vision captivated me then. It drew me back 20 years later to become even more captivated.

Discovering the vineyard on his first trip to Monte­pulciano, Manelli was instantly enthralled.

“I had never seen such a beautiful location,” he tells me. “I was touched by what I like to call the floating of the area over time and space. You can never define it — you cannot say it is today or in the middle of the Renaissance, or we are in the countryside or the middle of the world. It is rich because it has been preserved in an incredible way.”

The old-time landscape and architecture along with the modern opportunities he saw in winemaking and tourism made him think it would be a great place to establish a life. His life. What’s wrong, he reasoned, with retiring in your twenties to follow your passion?

Romans were the first to grow vines here. Then in the 18th century, the term “Nobile” was coined in reference to the nobles who drank the wine these vineyards produced. Today Vino Nobile refers to the wines of this Tuscan district.

Arriving here, he had the opportunity to shape the business in the way he wanted — a business model that addressed all of his concerns. His goal was, and still is, “to make better — much better — wines while maintaining a commitment to environmental sustainability.”

His instinct for environmental stewardship dates to his childhood. He grew up in the countryside, bordered by an urban area of growing industries. His early memories are of running free, swimming in the river, being in nature. Within a few years, the river became so polluted that children were told not to get close to it, never mind swim in it. “This really bothered me,” he says, “because I had this great fascination with everything related to nature — its power and beauty. It still does. As an adult, I believe every one of us, myself first, needs to find an alternative way to look at nature.”

In 20 years, the charismatic young man with a dream had become one of the most successful producers in Montepulciano and a world visionary in sustainability. He succeeded in changing the paradigm.

The land, he says, was reasonably priced when he bought it. Within five years it had increased tenfold. “I was particularly lucky because the first years were a time in which the area boomed,” he says. “When you are in a booming field, you can make mistakes and pay half of the price.”

I think you can ask the question: how does someone who knew nothing about wine achieve such success?

“I learned about wine by doing it,” he says. “At first it was grapes. I didn’t think I was prepared to make wine because I didn’t really understand what wine was. So, I was farming. I just grew the grapes. But quickly I recognized wine’s magic and I started winemaking, selling it locally. I was lucky to meet the right people who were incredibly helpful — one being a great consultant oenologist who is still a friend and colleague today.” With time, and the knowledge he gained in terms of microbiology and oenology, everything began to work better.

Inspirational is the word that best describes his route to success. And, he says, “a lot of hard work.” In order to expand, he brought in two partners who invested and who participate in strategic financial planning. Operationally, Salcheto bears his signature.

Salco means willow tree in the ancient Tuscan language. Historically, willow was an important plant for vineyards as its branches were used to bind the vines. Today the tree is prominently represented in the company’s logo to symbolize its commitment to environmental sustainability. Salcheto refers to the stream which springs at the foot of the town of Montepulciano and forms the boundary of Manelli’s estate.

The organically farmed vineyard now covers 65 hectares and Salcheto wines, originally available only in Italy, are sold in 19 countries (in Canada, they are available in Ontario and Quebec). His 2015 Vino Nobile recently scored 94 points and sits at number 11 in Wine Enthusiast magazine’s listing of the world’s top 100 wines.

Between 2009 and 2011, Manelli rebuilt and enlarged the cellar, the enoteca (wine shop) and tasting/lunch room, and, seeing value in adding a tourism component, his plans included a small guesthouse. Using the most innovative, sustainable technology, he created a winery that is completely off the grid.

The patio outside the tasting room, for example, is dotted with large glass domes. They cover mirrored shafts, allowing natural light to descend 21 metres through two storeys, first lighting the cavernous fermenting cellar, and down to light the barrel cellar. When he began planning, there were people who couldn’t understand it, saying it wasn’t possible to light a cellar this way. Salcheto is still pretty much alone in this technology.

Whether the design of the new wine cellar with its self-sustaining energy, the benefit program for his employees or using ultra-light glass bottles (Manelli’s are the lightest anywhere), everything is done with a view to ensure a balanced environmental, social and economic impact. Salcheto was the first winery in the world to certify the carbon footprint of a wine bottle, and the estate continues to replant willow trees that contribute to the winery’s energy independence.

“The company can’t hide from these responsibilities,” he says. “If we don’t change our business approach, we cannot change society. Sustainability has not created more challenges, just different challenges.”

Quality, he believes, is also something you must really want. It, too, must be a challenge. “You have to engage yourself in it fully,” he says. “You have to feel this holy fire inside of you, of wanting to make a difference.”

Wanting to revel in life under the Tuscan sun, my husband and I spent several days at the Salcheto Winehouse. The 13th-century farmhouse was once a watchtower for one of the access valleys to the town of Montepulciano, then for centuries, the life-centre of families who worked this land. Today it accommodates nine guest rooms, adjacent to the enoteca, kitchen and tasting room where guests eat breakfast and lunch.

The Winehouse is set in its own garden, complete with a hot tub made of old wine barrels. The rooms are stylishly simple and modern with creative recycled elements and an obvious respect for the environment. Shelves and tables, for example, are crafted from old wood and you won’t find any disposable water or miniature amenity bottles here. The kitchen serves Tuscan fare from locally produced foods, including Salcheto’s own honey.

Manelli is as gracious a host as he is a superb winemaker. We spent an afternoon sipping a glass of Vino Nobile, on the expansive patio with a million-euro view to the perched town of Montepulciano, wondering if we had died and gone to heaven. The bonus came from seeing firsthand the passion for taking care of nature while enjoying the excitement of harvest season. In the background, workers chattered as, by hand, they de-stemmed and selected grapes arriving from the vineyard. We couldn’t understand what they were saying, but we know happy chatter when we hear it.

Current and future challenges

“Today, market saturation is the challenge all winemakers face,” Manelli says. “We are a very mature field. Quality becomes more important than ever.”

Looking to the future, he has two short-term goals. One is that in order to maximize economies of scale, he must increase Salcheto’s grape production. Given the current prices, buying adjacent properties isn’t realistic, so he has come up with the idea of a joint venture — forming a type of consortium with two neighbours, each with a small vineyard that neither was capitalizing on. Salcheto offers its know-how to optimize their production. “It is starting to work,” Manelli says, “and I like it because there is also a social value.”

He wants to enhance the quality of the organization to be sure that it doesn’t depend only on him, which he says is not yet the case. “I would like to think that Salcheto is Salcheto and not me. This would be a greater legacy to leave behind.”

As you might expect from a creative entrepreneur, besides keeping Salcheto front and centre, Manelli has a ton of side ideas. The most recent project was trendy eyeglasses, their frames being made from the wood of exhausted wine barrels. He not only wears them, he also introduced them at the 2019 wine fair in Verona.

I asked where the wine industry will be in 20 years.

“2040 is not that far away,” he says. “I believe there will be a big change driving the transparency of wine. Today most people don’t know if there are additives in the wine they are drinking and, if so, what they are. Greater consumer expectation for transparency, in addition to increasingly stricter laws, will require businesses to think before about this in order to remain in the market.”

He foresees a taste-change evolution. “Consider that wine was created in Europe. Then North America became the New World of wine. Given the size of this new market, wine changed to appeal to Americans’ taste. Wines became softer, and particularly for the U.S., they have contained more sugar. This, in turn, has influenced European wines and changed the taste around Europe.”

Besides the latest growing economies, we are on the verge of the awakening of at least three giant markets — China, India and Brazil. Increased consumption from these countries these will transform wine. Think about Asia, and the spicier Asian diet. Will this create a new expectation for wine and drive a new taste evolution? He thinks it is very possible and an interesting opportunity to monitor.

Manelli continues to see a promising future pursuing sustainability as a central part of Salcheto’s business plan, through which he aims to tackle some of the biggest challenges for the future — such as the packaging, and clean fuel for farm machinery. At the same time, he will continue to spread sustainability awareness.

Although his ongoing vision for Salcheto is creating wines that are rated among the top in the world and respecting the environment, you might expect such a mover and shaker to have a Plan B. For Michele Manelli, it would be to work for free. “I am typically curious, and I love work. I love the idea of learning something and driving an action to create something,” he says. “The idea of being able to do exactly the same thing without needing to make a profit — to do it for the pure pleasure, that is true freedom. Why not? Who knows?”

Is it any wonder that the young man who won my admiration 20 years ago, continues to do so today?

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In line with WTO rules, the decision was taken after Canada made its second request at a closed-door meeting of the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body.

The U.S. delegation said British Columbia’s regulations exclude all imported wine from grocery store shelves and violated WTO rules on non-discrimination, trade officials said.

The restrictions limited sales opportunities for U.S. wine in Canada and gave a substantial competitive advantage to local wines, it said.

Canada questioned the commercial rationale for the U.S. move, noting imported wines account for around 90 per cent of all wine sales and there were nearly 1,000 points of sale for imported wine in the province.

The European Union, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina and Chile were among those reserving their third party rights in the WTO dispute.

— Reporting for Reuters by Stephanie Nebehay.

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Wine production totalled 250 million hectolitres last year, down 8.6 per cent from 2016, data from the Paris-based International Organization of Vine and Wine (OIV) released on Tuesday showed.

It is the lowest level since 1957, when it had fallen to 173.8 million hectolitres, the OIV told Reuters.

A hectolitre (hl) represents 100 litres, or the equivalent of just over 133 standard 75-cl wine bottles.

All top wine producers in the EU have been hit by harsh weather last year, which lead to an overall fall in the bloc of 14.6 per cent to 141 million hl.

The OIV’s projections, which exclude juice and must (new wine), put Italian wine production down 17 per cent at 42.5 million hl, French output down 19 per cent at 36.7 million and Spanish production down 20 per cent at 32.1 million.

The French government said last year production had hit a record low due to a series of poor weather conditions including spring frosts, drought and storms that affected most of the main growing regions including Bordeaux and Champagne.

In contrast, production remained nearly stable in the United States, the world’s fourth largest producer at 23.3 million hl, and China, which has become the world’s seventh largest wine producer behind Australia and Argentina.

Trends were mixed in Latin America, with a rise of 25 per cent in Argentina after a very low production in 2016 and a decline of six per cent in Chile.

For comparison, Canada in 2014 (the most recent year of OIV data available for the country) produced 599,521 hl of wine.

Global wine consumption edged higher at around 243 million hl in 2017, up 1.8 per cent from a year earlier. The U.S. confirmed its position as largest world wine consumer with 32.6 million hl, followed by France at 27 million.

Chinese wine consumption rose significantly for a third year in a row with an increase in 2017 of 3.5 per cent at 17.9 million hl.

On the export market, Spain remains the largest exporting country by volume with a global market share of 20.5 per cent, while France keeps its leading position in value with nine billion euros (C$14.1 billion) of wine exported last year.

In total, global exports totalled 107.9 million hl in 2017, up 3.4 per cent on the previous year, and 30 billion euros in value, an increase of 4.8 per cent on 2016.

— Reporting for Reuters by Sybille de La Hamaide and Pascale Denis. Includes files from AGCanada.com Network staff.

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The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has announced the voluntary statement “Cellared in Canada” will no longer be used on labels for wines blended in Canada, as per revisions made in March to the agency’s wine country-of-origin labelling policy.

Instead, for wines made primarily from imported product, a label may state “International blend from imported and domestic wines.” A primarily domestic blend’s label may read “International blend from domestic and imported wines.”

Wine sold in Canada must have a statement of the product’s origin, such as “Product of Spain” or “Product of Argentina.”

In some cases, CFIA said, wines are blended in Canada from various countries’ wines, including Canadian product — and the exact proportions of wines from each source can change over a production year.

For that reason, CFIA since 1994 has allowed the country-of-origin statement for wines blended in Canada to read “Cellared in Canada by (naming the company), (address) from imported and/or domestic wines.”

The “Cellared” statement was put in place “to allow flexibility in cases where wine is blended in Canada using Canadian wines and wines from numerous other countries,” the agency said.

However, comments made during consultations on the subject last June described the “Cellared” statement as “unclear, misleading and need(ing) to be replaced.”

Wine critics such as British wine writer Jancis Robinson have panned the “Cellared” descriptor, describing such brands in 2010 as “made up substantially of inexpensive bulk wine imported into Canada to be blended with some of the most basic domestic wine and, often, water.”

Canadian wine writer Beppi Crosariol wrote in the Globe and Mail in 2009 that while Canada has a long history of importing bulk wine and grapes for blending, in part to help domestic wineries boost cash flow, “clearer labels were necessary” to distinguish blends from 100 per cent domestic wines at retail.

Having seen “strong support” for the new statements during its consultations, the CFIA included the new statements in its labelling policy, effective March 12.

“The new statements are now considered acceptable for country-of-origin declarations for wines blended in Canada from domestic and imported sources if producers do not wish to list the countries of origin specifically,” the agency said.

Out of 886 respondents in consultations, including representatives from the public, the wine industry, wine associations and others, nearly 81 per cent of were “supportive” of the proposed statements, CFIA said.

The new statements, commenters said, “are more fair to local growers/producers,” are “more informative than ‘Cellared in Canada'” and make it “easier to differentiate these wines from Canadian products.”

If a producer wishes, each country of origin in a blended wine can be declared on the label; several blended wines already do so. The term “imported” is meant as “an option to use in those circumstances when the source of the imported wine content varies.”

Among wine associations taking part in the consultations, 100 per cent supported the new statements, CFIA said, while 88 per cent of wine industry players showed support, as did 82 per cent of respondents such as sommeliers, retailers, restaurant managers and “wine educators.”

Given those responses, a CFIA spokesperson said, the agency “is aware that most producers will want to switch to the new label statement as soon as possible.”

With that in mind, the agency said it hasn’t set a hard deadline for producers to move to the new label statement, but “understand(s) that companies will need time to use their current inventory of labels and print new ones.”

For the same reason, the agency said, it doesn’t expect any need to impose penalties for violations. CFIA said it has already updated its industry labelling tool with the new label statements “to promote compliance and provide guidance.”

Wines made from 100 per cent Canadian content may include the voluntary statement “Product of Canada” on the label, CFIA said.

Many 100 per cent Canadian wines from Ontario and British Columbia also feature the Vintner’s Quality Alliance (VQA) designation, certifying their claims of origin as Canadian-grown and coming from the region declared on the label. — AGCanada.com Network

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In a brief statement Thursday, Alberta’s Premier Rachel Notley said the province has suspended its ban on B.C. wine and will again allow “ordering, receiving and transportation” of B.C. wine products.

Notley’s announcement follows the B.C. government’s decision, earlier Thursday, to prepare a reference for courts to rule on the province’s “constitutional rights to defend against the risks of a bitumen spill.”

B.C. on Jan. 30 had proposed to restrict increased transport of crude oil in the form of diluted bitumen, while the B.C. government studies the potential effects of spills.

The B.C. government’s announcement on Thursday effectively stalls that proposal for the near future.

In retaliation for B.C.’s Jan. 30 proposal, Notley on Feb. 6 had ordered the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission to put an “immediate halt” on imports of B.C. wines.

B.C. retorted Monday it would challenge the wine ban through the interprovincial Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA) dispute settlement process. The B.C. Wine Institute also said it would seek an injunction to halt the ban.

The BCWI said Thursday it “welcome(s) the Alberta government’s decision to suspend the prohibition. However, uncertainty remains.”

Specifically, the institute “remain(s) concerned that any provincial government believes it has the constitutional authority to impose trade bans on Canadian products based on their place of origin.”

While the institute said it’s “thrilled that Alberta consumers once again have the choice to purchase and enjoy B.C. wines,” it also said it will consult its lawyers and membership on “our path forward.”

‘Drastic consequence’

B.C.’s Jan. 30 proposal had stood to delay Kinder Morgan Canada’s planned Trans Mountain pipeline expansion between Edmonton and Burnaby, B.C., a project approved by the federal government in 2016.

B.C. Premier John Horgan said Thursday that while the province refers its proposed restrictions on bitumen transport to the courts for a ruling — a reference which “may take several weeks” to bring forward — it will “soon” launch public consultations on other safeguards it proposed Jan. 30.

Those safeguards propose to regulate spill response time, geographic response plans and compensation for loss of public and cultural use of land.

“We believe it is our right to take appropriate measures to protect our environment, economy and our coast from the drastic consequence of a diluted bitumen spill,” Horgan said in a release. “And we are prepared to confirm that right in the courts.”

CBC later Thursday quoted Notley as saying she’s “confident the courts will not give B.C. rights it does not possess under the constitution.” — AGCanada.com Network

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