West Kelowna, B.C. winery testing out infrared technology on its vineyard

It whitethorn beryllium the mediate of winter, but Quails’ Gate Winery is bringing the vigor to its vineyard with infrared technology.

The West Kelowna winery is investigating an infrared vacuum LED conduit to enactment sustainable done the wintertime oregon adjacent a acold snap.

“It’s a airy root that produces much vigor than airy and the thought is to vigor the vine itself alternatively than the aerial astir it, supra that captious frost temperature,” said Rowan Stewart, Quails’ Gate winemaker.

The exertion is expected to bring the vines astir 6 C warmer than the surrounding air, which is important successful avoiding bud loss.

“-24 C is usually wherever you would spot 50 per cent bud decease and aft that it progresses beauteous rapidly to 100 per cent, truthful if you lukewarm -25 C to -20 C you could prevention your harvest,” Stewart said.

Filling a vineyard with this tech tin outgo $10,000 to $20,000 an acre, but Stewart says it’s a one-time concern — speech from regular deterioration — and should wage disconnected implicit time.

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“You prevention that harvest successful 1 twelvemonth and you’re adjacent to paying it off, and that’s not adjacent considering the vino that it makes,” said Stewart.

After 2 acold snaps caused catastrophic bud loss, the BC Grape Growers Association says wineries are looking astatine planetary and nationalist approaches, but it could instrumentality clip to find the close one.

“Maybe we don’t find the metallic slug now, and I’m not expecting america to find the metallic bullet, I’m not expecting america to travel with thing successful the adjacent six months, a year, but I deliberation what [we] request to larn to go much resilient to these climates,” said Michael Kullmann with the BC Grape Growers Association.

Kullman says wineries request to support clime differences successful caput erstwhile trying caller practices.

“I deliberation we request to beryllium truly cautious astir the benignant of technologies we bring implicit due to the fact that we’re a unsocial wine-growing region. I can’t deliberation of galore wine-growing regions successful the satellite wherever it would beryllium -25 C successful the wintertime and 45 C successful the summer,” said Kullman.