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Okanagan Crushpad
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Switchback Vineyard
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Crush Pad Sheep
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Crush Pad Ducks
Okanagan Crush Pad owners Steve Lornie and Christine Coletta thought about going organic back at Switchback Vineyard in 2006. Back then there were less than 60 hectares of certified organic land planted in BC.
“I wanted to plant organically, but our farming expert at the time advised against it,” said Christine Coletta. “A few years later, I spotted a rash on my dog Echo and I pieced it back to a walk through a vineyard recently sprayed with pesticides. The chemicals were affecting humans and animals and it had to stop. In 2011, I was ready to listen to my own expertise and that of Alberto Antonini. He said that we are just on this land for a short period of time and we all have a sense of duty to put it into better conditions and not deplete it. I knew it was time to go organic for the good of everyone.”
Coletta worked with Wines of Chile for eight years in places like Emiliana, which produce primarily organic products. “In my travels to Argentina, Chile, and the old world there are places with vines that are hundreds of years old. Okanagan vines have a shelf life of 18 - 20 years. They don’t use pesticides over there because they can’t afford them. The vines find their own way, build up their own internal resistance, and are able to fight off disease. Chile has done a good job of cutting themselves off from disease pressures as they have the Andes on one side and the ocean on the other.”
MAPPING AND CARING FOR VINEYARD SOILS
When it came time to convert to organic they consulted with respected terroir expert, Pedro Parra, who joined the winery team to assist them in the hunt for a new Okanagan vineyard site. Pedro and a team from Chile magnetically mapped the land and dug pits throughout for full analysis of site and soil.
“It’s like doing a big MRI on the whole vineyard,” said Coletta. “We think there is predominantly one kind of soil in the Okanagan – which isn’t true. Pedro looks at the soil structure eight feet down and determines from there what type of root stock, clone and irrigation system to use. In some areas we want roots to be driven down to the four-foot level and in others maybe six.”
Following Parra’s recommendations, the team made changes in pruning, watering, and ground cover crops. Sheep, chickens, ducks, and two miniature donkeys were brought in to the vineyard. “Sheep are very passive and stick together,” said Coletta. “They fertilize, mow, and aerate soils. We had a bit of a problem this year due to the lack of water and not enough rain so there was no ground crop to eat. We had to move them to greener pastures because bored sheep act like goats – they are troublemakers. We have them pastured now with two donkey’s for protection.”
At Switchback, Pinot Gris is the only grape grown. Over at their Garnet Valley Ranch property, are Pinot Noir, Riesling and Chardonnay.
“All are different clones on different roots stocks on different irrigation systems,” explained Coletta. “We’ve spent 4.5 million on Garnet Valley to date and we got 1.7 tons off it last year. It’s probably the most expensive vineyard planting in the history of the Okanagan. It is very high density planting and each type of grape has its own vineyard block. We haven’t done any soil moving, so the native habitat is still there. We put roads and fences in for each vineyard block to create wildlife corridors.”
CREATING QUALITY WINES
Okanagan Crush Pad didn’t go organic purely for health reasons. The end product was a deciding factor as well.
“Organic grapes are the main ingredient for making premium quality wine,” said Coletta. “If you don’t spray herbicides and pesticides you can easily get a natural fermentation going using the yeasts on the skins of the grapes. If you start out with fantastic grapes, you don’t have to add acid, sugar, and alcohol, or filter the heck out of it. All wines taste the same if you use commercial yeast. We want to avoid that.”
Okanagan Crush Pad made a white wine this year that they didn’t filter. They also didn’t put any SO2 in it. Coletta said this was possible because of their healthy grapes. “You can’t get a good fermentation going if you don’t have healthy grapes. There’s a magical quality when you don’t mess with things. We left it on the skins for eight months and it received a natural preservative from the extended skin contact. We bottled it and it is delicious. We leave a glass out on the counter and it doesn’t oxidize.”
COST VS. REWARDS
Many farmers believe going organic is expensive and time consuming. “It’s $450 a year,” said Coletta. “Some people say it’s too hard to do, but I say you can use this as a marketing advantage. We have been farming organically for four years now and we haven’t said the wines were made from organically grown grapes until we got our certification.”
The government is currently putting measures in place so certification must be proven before a product can be labelled organic. “Sure organic standards are strict,” adds Coletta, “but they need to be strict. We have learned so much from having inspectors come to our farms. They gave us great advice. You may think you are doing everything right, but you don’t know until they come through. For example: the Salmon Safe inspector gave us valuable information on how to farm that was worth more that than it cost us to be certified. That inspector is an organic farmer so we got valuable information from that inspection.”
For Coletta and her team, it’s has been a time of learning and growth. “We were like parents of newborns: over-anxious, over-bearing and hovering. Now we’re a little more relaxed about the process. We’ve now made the choice to only use organic grapes at Okanagan Crush Pad. The suppliers that are staying with us already agreed to a four-year conversion program to certified organic. In three years time, all the grapes that go into our wines will be organic.”
As for Echo the dog… he’s doing just fine and can roam the vineyards with his human friends without fear of getting sick.