'One hit after the other': Interior wineries struggle to continue amidst growing challenges

"I think there's a lot of frustration from a lot of tourism operators that just feel like we've been left out in the cold."

Calls are coming for more to be done to help wineries across Interior BC, as closure announcements continue amidst recovery hardships from the pandemic, crop loss, wildfires and rising costs.

Oliver's Covert Farms Family Estate announced their closure on Thursday to public visits. On Friday, Camelot Vineyards Estate Winery in East Kelowna announced they would be shutting down. The week before, Red Rooster Winery announced its tasting room closing.

The Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association said they were not surprised by the announcements.

“Unfortunately not. We've been hearing these rumblings for a while. Some of it is consolidation by some of the bigger players, we know that, but it is really difficult when we hear the smaller wineries that are having to make these decisions for their own reasons,” TOTA CEO & President Ellen Walker-Matthews said.

“They're part of that travel experience into the region. We really want to try and keep as many of them alive as we possibly can.”

Wine Growers BC estimated in October that climate-related setbacks caused a 54 per cent reduction in 2023 crops, and longer-term damage to 45 per cent of the total planted acreage, with a projected $133 million in direct revenue lost this year alone.

In the case of Covert Farms, where crop damage was minimal, the impact of a lower tourism season due to wildfires and highway closures only pushed for them to re-evaluate running their tasting rooms and public events.

Husband and wife team Shelly and Gene Covert are the fourth generation to run the business.

“It just seems to be one hit after the other and you just feel like you're picking yourself up again and dusting yourself off and reinventing yourself only for another thing to hit you,” Shelly said.

“We just kind of feel like the wind has been blowing out of our sails a bit and we need to just now need to concentrate on things that are near and dear to our heart.”

The family has been welcoming the public since Gene's grandfather started a you-pick fruits and vegetables operation before it became a country market with a fruit stand and a restaurant in 2000 and then in 2005, their wine shop opened its doors.

The estate will continue to produce their wines, for purchase online and at restaurants and retailers around the country, along with working on their regenerative organic farming.

“It's been huge for us to let this end go,” Shelly said. “We were at the point where we had to let half of our staff go and just scale things way back just to have ends meet.”

Gene said as the wildfires have grown worse in the valley, the challenges have added up each year.

“I think back as a winemaker, how many vintages don't have smoke taint as an issue and there's more of them with smoking taint than without,” he added.

While some support comes out in crop insurance and vine insurance, the rest of the calls for help with losses within the tourism sector go unanswered.

“I think we had a meeting at the beginning of September and it's been silence from there, and it's just created this crisis of confidence in doing business here,” Gene said.

Walker-Matthews said the BC Hotel Association, together with the Tourism Industry Association of BC and TOTA have approached the government with some recommendations or asks that might help in the short term.

“I think the bigger thing is, how do we deal with this in the long term? And I know, there's a lot of conversations happening right now. There's a lot of committees being formed and task forces because this is a long-term problem,” she added.

“Climate change isn't going away. We need to address it. We need to understand how we can work together and really keep those lines of communication open as to what the industry needs to really survive.”

There have been calls from the local chamber of commerce to the federal government to expand the AgriRecovery program so that it supports wineries in addition to grape growers and to repeal, or at the very least, suspend the excise tax at a time when vineyards are being destroyed and winemakers forced to rapidly adapt to climate change.

Both Covert and Walker-Matthews agreed that unfortunately, this may just be the start of wineries closing and more could be on their way out.

The hope is to see help come forward from the government for local Okanagan tourism and hospitality businesses after these tremendous challenges.