Frontenac Grapes
Frontenac grapes are a French-American hybrid, created in 1978 by University of Minnesota breeders and introduced in 1996. The grapes are particularly known for their resistance to the cold, but will they withstand extreme weather.
Ontario wineries are facing the grim realities of climate change, as extreme winter weather has effectively cut the 2022 grape crop by half.
Winemakers in the region say the freezing temperatures last winter badly damaged the vines, with production this year estimated at just 42,000 tonnes, down from 82,000 in 2021.
Steve Byfield, a winemaker at Nyarai Cellars, told CBC Hamilton that farmers are now looking at adopting new grape varietals to deal with the more extreme variations in weather brought about by global warming.
“Climate change is impacting how we look at what grapes we can grow in the Ontario market,” Byfield told CBC Hamilton. “I know in France they’re breeding newer clones of different style grapes that will hopefully withstand and stand up to the changing climatic conditions that we’ve been seeing over the last five or six years.”
The situation is so bad this year that Byfield’s colleague, director of marketing Sharon Little, says growers are unable to meet their contractual obligations.
“Some of them ... their contracts with the larger wineries are just barely being fulfilled, or may not be able to be fulfilled because of the damage, and then we lose out too, of course, because … we only buy a small amount from here and there and everywhere,” she told CBC Hamilton. “So, it’s definitely hard for us.”
The Grape Growers of Ontario is also sounding the alarm over the climate-related disaster.
“With the vines literally dying, we don’t have a crop, a significant crop,” Zimmerman said, adding this is a long-term problem. On the one hand, global warming is bringing hotter summers that can damage cool climate grapes, and on the other, causing wild weather swings that can result in unusually cold winters.
Both pose critical problems for growers. “Climate change has an overall impact on the extreme weather swings, which ultimately are putting pressure on consistently growing a crop,” Zimmerman explains. “The disease pressures from invasive pests and grape virus issues are heightened by the swings in climate as well.”
This year the crop crisis was caused by a variety of factors that all combined to create a deadly environment for grape vines. Because the autumn of 2021 was unusually wet, grapes were left hanging longer than usual, and December also saw very wet weather, causing the sap to stop running through the trunk of the vine.
That was followed by a deep freeze in January that killed or damaged grape vines across southern Ontario. For that reason, the impact on grapegrowers will be felt over the longer term, as many farmers will have to replant at a cost of up to $45,000 an acre, and no revenue coming from those new vines for five or six years.
The Grape Growers of Ontario is now working with the federal and Ontario governments on a disaster package, primarily aimed at helping farmers with the costs associated with crop loss and replanting programs.
The emergency funding program that GGO is asking for would be similar to what happened in British Columbia after floods, supercharged by climate change, devastated farmers in the Fraser Valley.
One of the problems for farmers is that crop insurance only covers the costs for a single year, but in this case, the decline in revenue from lost vines is a long-term hit.
So far, it appears the Ontario government is committing to:
- an additional $10 million in 2022–23 for ongoing support and expansion of the Enhanced Agri‐Food Workplace Protection Program to help farms and agri‐food operations take additional measures to support the health and safety of agri‐food workers;
- $10 million COVID recovery fund for Ontario wineries and cideries to help them address the challenges posed by COVID. Wineries will be able to use these funds to invest in many activities including promotion, market development and tourism recovery;
- Expanded, multi-year funding of the VQA support program through 2024/25.
However, experts in climate change and agriculture say Ontario - like other wine regions - faces a much larger problem with long-term implications.
Elizabeth Wolkovich, associate professor of Forest and Conservation Sciences at UBC, is studying how global warming will affect wineries and grape growers, with a focus on the Okanagan Valley and regions of California.
“The grapes used in wine are very sensitive to changes in the weather, which is part of what makes wine so interesting,” Wolkovich says. “But, that means grapes are also sensitive to long-term climate changes.”
On the positive side, that means that Canada may see new regions opening up for wine production, and already, that’s happening in provinces like Quebec and Nova Scotia, where wine production was almost unheard of a decade ago.
But on the negative side, the extreme weather swings caused by global warming also make it difficult to achieve predictable results, or to avoid disasters like the one faced by Ontario farmers this year.
In France last year, crops were similarly devastated by a severe cold snap, causing the loss of one-third of the grape harvest. As a result, the world’s most famous wine region in Bordeaux has now approved six new varietals that can be used in a Bordeaux wine, all of them chosen not just for their flavour, but their ability to withstand the extreme variations in weather caused by climate change.
Experts like Wolkowich says growers across Canada will also need to look at hardier, climate resistant grapes, and at new areas for grape production.
