With the 2021 harvest in full swing as we write this, and with lots of questions about how it’s going this year given the challenging summer experienced by so many across BC, we thought we’d give a little update on how things are looking here in the Similkameen Valley, and at Clos du Soleil.
Clos du Soleil Harvest 2021: Mid-Harvest Update
- Our team expects to harvest around 120 tons of grapes this year – our largest ever.
- We are finding extremely high quality in the grapes from the Similkameen Valley this year. We were incredibly fortunate to have experienced very little impact from any wildfires this summer, and the intense, dry heat has led to intense, full-flavoured grapes that will make excellent wine.
- We are in the final stages of harvesting grapes for our white wines. The only remaining harvests for white wine as of writing (September 22nd) are Chardonnay from La Côte vineyard, and Pinot Gris from Whispered Secret vineyard.
- We are just at the very beginning of our red harvest; this will stretch through October, and into early November, so we have some busy months ahead of us.
- Despite the warm summer, our grapes have maintained really bright acidity, which is what gives Clos du Soleil wines their lively energy, and makes them such wonderful food wines.
- Because we are harvesting most days, if you happen to be visiting our Tasting Room we invite you to pop around behind the winery to our crushpad, where we are always happy to explain what is going on, and to see the action for yourself!
- We will provide an update as soon as harvest is done for the year, so watch this space for final harvest numbers, teasers of what’s to come, and musings from our winemaker.