Letter from Our Winemaker

Hi everyone,

I’m Mason, and I’m the winemaker at Dirty Laundry Vineyard. I’m so excited to release our 2024 vintage, the grapes for which had to be sourced from Washington State due to the harsh winter conditions we experienced early in the year. The extreme cold had an immense impact on our vines, freezing the buds that would have produced fruit for our 2024 vintage. 

We are grateful to have been able to source grapes from Washington, and specifically two suppliers; Coventry Vale Winery and Wyckoff Farms. These suppliers have been in the grape growing custom crush industry since 1988. The proximity of these suppliers allows us to keep our production as close to home as possible, just under 400km south of the border, which means we are able to preserve a lot of the character of our wines with grapes grown in a similar terroir. Coventry Vale was also one of the few wineries in the state that grows Gewurztraminer and Pinot Gris, which are two important varietals for us here at DLV. 

Grapes were grown within three American Viticultural Areas (AVAs): Horse Heaven Hills, Wahluke Slope and Yakima Valley. The Horse Heaven Hills and Yakima Valley appellations together are home to over one half of the state’s grapevine acreage. The breadth of these appellations allow for different areas with warmer and cooler climates, allowing multiple different varietals to be grown within these AVAs. 

Harvest of course looked a bit different for us in 2024. Instead of harvesting ourselves, white grapes were harvested, crushed and pressed in Washington, with the juice being trucked to Dirty Laundry for fermentation. Red grapes were hand picked and delivered to Dirty Laundry in refrigerated trucks so we could crush and press them ourselves, and be able to ferment them on the skins. 

All of us at Dirty Laundry Vineyard would like to express our gratitude for your continued support, as we have navigated a difficult season in the winery’s history. We want to be able to continue producing quality wines for you to enjoy for years to come, and sourcing grapes from Washington for the 2024 vintage is how we are able to do so. Even though they produced no fruit, our vines did survive and we look forward to producing Okanagan grown wines once again in 2025. 

FAQ's

Q. Why didn’t you choose to source Canadian fruit?

A. We sourced fruit from the region which had the highest quality and closest flavour profiles to our BC VQA fruit.

Q. How long will you have to source fruit from Washington?

A. We hope this year is a one-off but it will depend on what the plants produce in this and subsequent years as well as what the governing bodies in the industry allow us to do.

Q. Are all the vines in the Okanagan Valley dead?

A. NO! They are looking beautiful so far this year! Bud break is happening now (April) and we have high hopes that we will have a healthy crop come harvest this fall.

Q. What will happen next year?

A. We will wait and see! Let’s enjoy the wines we were able to make this year!

Q. Are the wines going to be more expensive because of the US dollar?

A. NO! Though there are many factors affecting price of the wines, we have not changed the pricing of our wines this year.